CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Bryce Harper spent his offseason trying to stay inside the phone booth. 

It’s something he came up with a few years ago, when he was talking about hitting with J.T. Realmuto. Something didn’t feel right with Harper’s swing. Harper is a feel guy. It’s one reason why you might see him holding his hands high one day, then dropping them the next. He might toe tap in the first inning of a game. He might not in the third. 

It just depends on how he feels. 

“Man,” Harper told Realmuto that day. “If I can just stay inside that phone booth.” 

• Harper talks potential extension, move to first base

Harper explained his phone booth principle on Tuesday morning at BayCare Ballpark when he was asked if he focused on anything in the offseason. Every baseball player focuses on something in their downtime. It could be mindset or mechanics, or in the case of pitchers, a new pitch or a new grip on an old one. 

The two-time National League MVP and 2022 NLCS MVP is no different. 

“I know when my swing is correct,” Harper said. “I feel like I know where my body needs to be, what my path needs to be and what my movement needs to be. I’m very in tune with where I need my body. I always talk about my three steps. My three steps are getting ready early, putting my foot down and then getting through the baseball. Those are my three really big cues. 

“Just imagine one of those red phone booths in London. The old-school ones. Imagine I’m in that phone booth. If I can just stay in that phone booth and not get too far [he tilts his body forward] to hit this wall [of the phone booth] or not get too far to hit that wall [he tilts his body the other way], if I can stay in the phone booth and hit the ball here, then everything else should take care of itself. So I want to keep mastering that.  

“Obviously, there’s stuff I can get better at. But that’s all in-game playing. I need to play games to get better at that. In the offseason, I’m trying to master my craft of early, down and through, and then staying in my window of that.” 

• Projecting the Phillies' Opening Day roster

Harper said he and Realmuto still occasionally bring up the phone booth when they talk hitting. 

“When I get uneven or something happens, I’ll say, ‘Just stay in it,’” Harper said. “If I can master that, I think it’ll help me in the long haul.” 

Harper said he hasn’t tried any of the high-tech options available to hitters, including performance labs that break down every part of a hitter’s swing. 

“I talked to a guy about the swing evaluation stuff from [Marucci Sports, a sports equipment company] last year and he was like, ‘I think you’re OK,’” Harper said. “Like, don’t switch your bats. We’re going to come back with the same stuff you’re probably swinging right now. Obviously, there’s stuff you can always learn on the computer side. But I’ve talked to multiple people about getting fitted with all the wires and all the mechanical stuff they do.

"I think it’s great. It’s awesome. But I’m trying to master my stuff right now. But if I do get to that point, it’s a phone call away.” 

J.T. Realmuto caught an MLB-high 1,142 innings in the 2023 regular season. Who is the last Phillies catcher to catch more innings in a single season? 

A) Carlos Ruiz 
B) Darren Daulton 
C) Cameron Rupp 
D) Mike Lieberthal 

Manco & Manco has a new concession stand at BayCare Ballpark, but one pizza connoisseur wondered if the pizzas in Clearwater will taste the same as the ones on the Ocean City boardwalk? After all, don’t pizza makers love to tell you how their local water is the special ingredient for their pizza dough? 

Or is that water stuff just nonsense? 

“I believe in that 100 percent,” Manco & Manco’s Chuck Bangle said this week. 

So then how does Manco & Manco in Clearwater taste like Manco & Manco in Ocean City or Citizens Bank Park? 

“Where we make our dough, which is at a proprietary facility, it duplicates Ocean City water,” Bangle said. 

For real? 

“Seriously,” Bangle said. 

He said the facility is not in Florida, but, “Hand to God, we do duplicate Ocean City water.” 

Bangle declined to name the company, but New York WaterMaker is one company that claims to replicate any water in the world. A bagel shop in Florida once said it replicated Brooklyn water to make New York-style bagels. 

“We went to great lengths,” Bangle said. “We tested our water, our products, for five years before we even wanted to do CBP. We knew we were not only going to go to Citizens Bank Park, but we were going to franchise. The reason we went to Citizens Bank Park was to get validation from our product. And right away, when the gate went up, and they saw the white shirt and the sauce pump hose and the big oven and then they tasted the pizza, they said, 'Yeah, the real Manco’s has landed in Philly.'” 

Bangle said Manco’s pizza dough gets to Clearwater from the undisclosed facility via a refrigerated truck. 

“Our third state. Forty-seven to go, plus the District of Columbia,” Bangle said. 

D) Mike Lieberthal (1,143 2/3 innings in 2003) 

To subscribe to Phillies Beat, visit this page and mark "Phillies Beat" from our newsletter list. Make sure you're following the Phillies or that they're checked as your favorite team.

View Online