When Bryce Harper and the Philadelphia Phillies arrived at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Florida, ahead of spring training this year, they had some familiar images on the clubhouse walls to greet them.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Luke Arcaini of Fox Sports The Gambler relayed an image that MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki posted to Instagram, showing off the new artwork.
The new artwork displays Trea Turner’s walk-off against the San Francisco Giants on Aug. 22, which came during his hot streak following the fans’ standing ovations earlier in the month, and Bryson Stott’s electric grand slam during Game 2 of the team’s National League Wild Card Series against the Miami Marlins.
But it's the third legendary image that has the attention of many fans.
For the second straight year, the Phillies found themselves matched up against the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series. After taking the first game in Atlanta, and taking the lead into the bottom of the eighth inning in Game 2, the team was looking to take a commanding 2-0 series lead back to Philadelphia.
However, things fell apart at the end of Game 2.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Haper led off with a walk before making a baserunning blunder to get doubled up at first to end the game. In the clubhouse after the win, Fox Sports' Jake Mintz reported that Atlanta shortstop Orlando Arcia was repeatedly saying, "Atta boy, Harper."
Fans latched on to the mocking. And it didn't take long for Harper to hear the comment from his teammates, telling reporters after Game 3 of the NLDS: "They just kind of told me and then they looked at me and they were like, 'What are you gonna do?'"
It turns out, what he did was blast two home runs and deliver two epic staredowns to his opponent in Game 3.
In the bottom of the third inning, Harper blasted a 408-foot, three-run homer to right field to put the Phillies up 4-1.
As the first baseman was approaching first, he gave a look across the diamond toward Arcia. By the time he was rounding second, he gave another quick look back at the shortstop. To cap off the moment, Harper made a throat-slashing motion before he crossed home plate as the Citizens Bank Park crowd went wild.
HE TRIED TO WARN 'EM pic.twitter.com/284lM8XeFM
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) October 11, 2023
In his next at-bat, in the bottom of the fifth, Harper led off the inning with a 414-foot shot to center to stake the team to a 7-1 lead.
Rounding the bases, he served up another staredown. This one was longer, more intense and ultimately became the photo now hanging on the walls of the BayCare clubhouse.
Bryce Harper stared down Orlando Arcia AGAIN 😳 pic.twitter.com/jPYLcWrDzm
— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) October 11, 2023
The Phillies went on to win the game 10-2 and the series 3-1.
As Joey Votto said on the Dan Patrick Show after the game: "This is what I think baseball needs more of. I think we need these exchanges. ... I think the average baseball fan wants to hear the anger, the emotion, the hatred, the spite."
There's no doubt the tension between the two divisional rivals will carry into this season. The Phillies' first spring training game against Atlanta is on Feb. 28, and they open the regular season against Arcia and his teammates on March 28 in Philadelphia.
Harper and his Phillies teammates will be hoping for an opportunity to recreate the iconic moment against Arcia and Atlanta in the playoffs yet again this year.