‘The Showman’ owns the Bank stage. What does Bryce Harper have in store for another playoff run?

PHILADELPHIA – Twenty-one floors above the Las Vegas Strip, on a Saturday in January 2019, the Phillies made their first pitch to Bryce Harper.

John Middleton stressed his commitment to winning, a point the owner would hammer home a month later over dinner. Then-general manager Matt Klentak talked about the up-and-coming prospects in the minor league system. There were spray charts and graphs. The presentation was comprehensive.

Among the biggest selling points: the ballpark.

“They did the overlay, right?” Harper said. “They show you, ‘Oh, you would’ve had 40 more homers here in that situation,’ or whatever it is.”

Harper didn’t need to be sold. He knew a good bit about Citizens Bank Park from playing 50 games here over seven seasons with the Washington Nationals and talking with former Phillies outfielder Jayson Werth, his friend and mentor in Washington. Like most hitters, Harper found the dimensions to be, uh, inviting, especially 369 feet to the alley in right-center. What left-handed hitter wouldn’t drool over that?

But there was one thing that Harper couldn’t possibly have known. Not until he signed the contract , pulled on the uniform, stood in the batter’s box and called the place home.

“Just that feeling of having 40,000 people behind you, understanding what it takes to do what you do and having your back each night in whatever situation you’re in,” he said. “When I have that on a nightly basis – on a Tuesday night in April or on a Saturday in June or a Friday or in the postseason – walking up to the plate, there’s no greater feeling knowing that I have that many people behind me, making me go.

“I’m smiling right now just thinking about it.”

OK, let’s be clear: 20 years after opening its gates, the Bank isn’t the House That Bryce Built. It rocked back in 2007 and 2008, when Red October first became a thing and Harper was still in high school.

But he sure did move right in and make himself comfortable, didn’t he?

For six seasons – has it really been that long? – Harper has been the chief resident and main attraction at the Bank, as he calls it, for 81 nights a year, plus a limited postseason engagement that is going on its third consecutive year.

And with another October upon us – the Phillies will host Game 1 of the divisional round at 1:08 p.m. Saturday – it’s worth wondering what he has in store this time.

This much is clear: You’ll want to tune in.

Because since 2019, when Harper came to town, he has a 1.002 regular-season OPS at home. It’s the third-highest mark among players who’ve played at least 100 home games, trailing Mike Trout (1.058) and Aaron Judge (1.011). It also leads all Phillies players who have played at least 20 games in the history of the Bank.

(For context, Bobby Abreu had a .948 OPS at home with the Phillies; Pat Burrell posted a .914 mark; Werth .908; Ryan Howard and Chase Utley .884 and .880, respectively; Hall of Fame slugger Jim Thome put up an .861 OPS in 109 home games here.)

And then, there’s the postseason. Seven of Harper’s 11 playoff homers for the Phillies have come in South Philly. In 16 postseason home games over the past two years, he’s 18 for 57 (.316) with 17 RBIs.

Think of Harper’s greatest hits with the Phillies:

• July 2019: Walk-off double against the Dodgers.

• August 2019: Upper-deck grand slam to beat the Cubs.

• June 2022: Game-tying slam in Rob Thomson’s third game as manager.

• October 2022: Pennant-clinching homer vs. the Padres.

• August 2023: Career homer No. 300.

• October 2023: Two homers and an epic stare down.

• April : Three-homer game in the rain against the Reds.

They all happened, you guessed it, at home. In fact, 10 of Harper’s 13 biggest hits with the Phillies, according to win probability added, came at the Bank, where, as radio play-by-play man Scott Franzke famously said, the face of the franchise often inspires bedlam.

“It’s why they call him ‘The Showman,’ ” Bryson Stott said, repeating the line Harper’s teammates often use to explain his flair for the dramatic.

What is it, then, about the place that brings out the absolute best in a player who probably will wind up in the Hall of Fame?

“I don’t know,” Harper said. “It’s just a feeling, you know?”

No, actually.

“I mean, the first time I hit a homer off Jesse Biddle for my first (Phillies) homer, just kind of the way the place erupted,” Harper said, recalling a seventh-inning solo shot in the second game of the season in 2019 against the Braves lefty and Germantown Friends alumnus. “My first at-bat, too, even when I punched out. It was kind of that feeling of like, ‘This is the start of something really cool.’ I just feel like that’s kind of the feeling.”

Surely, though, it was a much different feeling all those years as a visitor to the Bank – with another National League East team, no less, at a time when the Phillies weren’t very good, to put it kindly.

“Obviously, the fans were still there, but I feel like they were a little bit more ornery,” Harper said. “Going in as an opposing player, they were always yelling and screaming at me. No, but obviously, you understood going to Philly, you understood what you were going to get.”

And Harper heard it all in right field.

“I did, I did, I did,” he said. “That’s kind of why I wanted to move to first base.”

“Then, once it got closer to free agency, it was kind of like, ‘Hey, we’re going to be a little bit nicer to him,’ ” Harper said. “I’d be out in right field in ’17 and ’18, and it was kind of a little bit nicer.”

Harper’s popularity received an instant boost when he signed a 13-year contract that didn’t include the opt-out clause that has become so prevalent for star players. He wanted to set down roots in Philadelphia. And he recruited other stars to join him, from campaigning for the team to re-sign J.T. Realmuto to lobbying for Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos and, eventually, Trea Turner.

It also helped that Harper connected with fans in ways that resonate.

Before games in 2019, he would face the right-field bleachers, doff his cap, raise both arms over his head, bend at the waist, and bow theatrically, as if he just performed all five acts of Macbeth. He wore Phanatic-themed cleats and has since branched out to kelly green footwear to support the Eagles and even Wawa cleats. He listens to sports-talk radio on his commute to the ballpark.

If there was a playbook for the city’s highly paid star athletes, Harper has pretty much kept running the “Philly Special” over and over.

Some think it’s pandering. The people who are closest to Harper know better.

“I don’t think he’s doing anything because he knows people are going to talk about it,” said Stott, who grew up around Harper in Las Vegas.

“It’s more of, he’s interacting with (fans). They paid money to come see him and see the team, and for him to do that for them, it probably makes their day even better.”

In turn, Harper appreciates the fans’ passion and knowledge. He noted a game last month when a sold-out crowd stood and chanted infielder Buddy Kennedy’s name during a pinch-hit at-bat. Never mind that the fans were barely acquainted with Kennedy, a South Jersey native who got called up from Triple-A only a few days earlier.

“They do a good job of knowing when to cheer,” Harper said. “I feel like some places you go, man, they don’t know when to cheer, how to cheer, when to get on their feet or when not to get on their feet.

“Our fans are super-engaged, and I love that about them. They understand what’s going on, what’s at stake.

“I think they kind of have a chip on their shoulder, too, like, ‘We’re the loudest fans in baseball.’ I don’t think anybody’s going to deny that because they really are.”

And so, Red October is about to begin again, with the Phillies’ biggest star ready to reprise his role on his favorite stage.”