Harper: "I don't want to be a Yankee"

If you had hopes that the Yankees would one day sign Bryce Harper, you may want to pull back the reigns a little. Apparently, he's pretty happy in DC:

“You look at Cal Ripken. You look at Derek Jeter. You look at all the greats that played for one team their whole career,” Harper said last weekend, sitting in the dugout at Camden Yards in Baltimore. “I want to be like that. I’ve always wanted to be like that. I’ve always wanted to play with that same team.”

“Having a community and fans like we do in D.C. that love our players, love everything about us, we deserve to give something back to them,” he added. “I want to do that. I don’t want to do anything else.”

Harper has told his father the same thing, that he wants to make Washington home and play here until he retires. “Bryce is as loyal as they come,” Ron Harper said. “He doesn’t care about nothing but winning a championship.”

...

Before the Nationals played the Yankees in mid-June, Harper told his father, “I don’t want to be a Yankee. I want to beat them.”

At least the Yankees won't have to fork up the $400 million it was estimated that Harper could get on the open market, so at least they can avoid that headache. That said, if Harper spends a few years in Washington and doesn't win, I wouldn't be surprised to hear he's had another change of heart.