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If Bryce Harper wants to be baseball's biggest star, he has some lessons to learn

Eight days before Bryce Harper got himself suspended for furrowing his brow, pointing at an umpire and unleashing a vitriolic F-bomb that TV cameras caught in all their high-definition glory, he was talking to me about the importance of his relationship with young baseball fans. In retrospect, it's an interesting conversation that shows the chasm between the place Harper is and where he wants to be.

In Harper's mind, he is the player trying to Make Baseball Fun Again. He is the most marketable player of his generation, the reigning MVP who happens to match his talent with a cool coif of hair and a big personality. All of these things are true. They do not exist in a vacuum, though. When you foist yourself into the center of a sport whose customs and traditions don't necessarily dovetail with your whole vibe, certain requirements exist. It's not kissing the ring so much as acknowledging who wears it and what it's going to take to win them over.

Because while Harper, an outfielder for the Washington Nationals, has the kids and so many others on board, excusing himself from a home-plate mosh pit celebrating a game-winning home run by a teammate to tell an umpire "[Expletive] you!" isn't just a bad look. It's an off-putting decision that reinforces all of the stupid stereotypes Harper has spent years doing a pretty good job of destroying.

Bryce Harper is appealing his one-game suspension. (AP)
Bryce Harper is appealing his one-game suspension. (AP)

So let's remember that, no, Bryce Harper is not a punk, not a spoiled brat, not obnoxious or excessively arrogant or any of the things those who hate him want him to be. Know what else he isn't? A kid who doesn't know better. Harper is 23 years old and has spent seven years in the public spotlight. He's remarkably savvy when it comes to his perception. To allow emotion to overwhelm his judgment was a rare misstep, and his lack of contrition for how he addressed umpire Brian Knight afterward felt wrong in contrast to what he'd said a week earlier.

"When you grow up and want to play the game of baseball, you pick that one guy you always want to be like," Harper told Yahoo Sports. "I want to be that guy for kids."

Much as I don't subscribe to the athletes-must-be-role-models dictum, Harper essentially is saying he wants to be a role model. Good for him, of course, for taking on that mantel in a sport that desperately needs its best players to attract kids and drag the average age of baseball's fan down from deceased. If there's anyone who can inspire a new generation of baseball fans, it is Harper.

That position, though, comes with a responsibility. Perfection is too much to ask. Decorum isn't.

Harper ostensibly received a one-game suspension for sticking around after Knight ejected him for arguing balls and strikes from the bench and the cuss. Let's be honest: If Harper didn't stare down Knight and give him the ol' FU, the suspension – which he's appealing – doesn't exist.

The position Harper wants comes with incredible benefits. My kid runs around making diving catches, saying he's just like Bryce Harper. A million other kids are doing the same. High schoolers wear ostentatious eye black to be like him. The guy has damn near brought the pompadour back in style. Here is what Harper must understand: Along with those benefits are responsibilities, and chief among them is the expectation that he conduct himself in a manner that sets a good example for the kids he's courting. This is a fair ask.

"There's so many great players in this game," Harper said. "If that's [Manny] Machado or [Mike] Trout or me or whoever – if somebody's wearing a baseball jersey, I'm happy about it. Having kids out there who want to be like their favorite players and they're actually playing the game, that's what you want to see. If little kids are doing that and enjoying playing the game of baseball, that's the goal."

A goal that Harper takes very seriously, and for that he should be lauded. He cares about baseball. Like, legitimately cares about not just its present but its history. When he was in Kansas City last week, Harper accompanied his manager, Dusty Baker, to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, a font of knowledge. Harper loved it. "One of the coolest things I've ever been to," he said.

He loves wearing No. 42 on Jackie Robinson Day, loves talking about Chipper Jones and Derek Jeter and Paul O'Neill and the rest of the guys he grew up watching and admiring, loves looking at old photos of Josh Gibson to marvel at the size of his forearms. Harper is a baseball freak, and his worship of the game radiates. It's what makes him such a paragon. Very little about Harper is fake.

It's what made one thing he said so resonant. Harper said he abides by the famous Joe DiMaggio quote: "There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first or last time. I owe him my best." It's why Harper dives and runs hard and gets giddy just playing. He knows how lucky he is.

He knows, too, how fragile a reputation can be, how if he is above the rest he must act like it. Bryce Harper is great for baseball. He makes it fun. If that means biting his tongue on occasion or turning his back on another, it's a fair price. It's not just the kids who should love him. It's everyone.

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