Washington Nationals superstar Bryce Harper entered Thursday night in a bit of a slump at the dish, with just four hits in 31 at-bats over his last 12 games, and only one extra-base hit (a double) in that span.
Well, Harper wanted to try something new to hopefully break out of this slump, and decided to not wear batting gloves for his at-bat against St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Mike Leake in the sixth inning of Thursday night’s game in DC.
Sure enough, Harper launched a 434-foot homer to the third deck of the right field seats at Nationals Park. And right after he hit the bomb, he went into the dugout, found a pair of scissors, and cut up those old useless batting gloves.
Here’s video, both of the homer and ensuing batting-glove destruction:
Were the batting gloves really the difference? Almost certainly not, but baseball players love their superstitions and this gave a nice mental boost to Harper if nothing else.
The homer ended up being a very important one for Harper’s Nationals too, as Washington won the game 2-1.
