Via With Major League Baseball’s 30 teams in the full thrust of spring training, we can finally forget about our crummy hockey team, sometimes-middling basketball team, obstreperous football team, and finally return our sports gaze to the Washington Nationals.
For its spring training preview, Sports Illustrated is putting on the cover Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper, fresh off an electric first season for which he was named National League Rookie of the Year. In the cover story, Harper tells Tom Verducci that he has big plans for his sophomore season.
That’s all well and good, and baseball certainly learned last year that Harper’s confidence in his own abilities is matched by impressive on-field performance, but should Nationals fans maybe be worried that Harper is gracing the front of Sports Illustrated? Maybe!
Sports Illustrated, as some superstitious types would argue, is also home to something of a cover jinx, in which featured athletes bask in their glossy profiles only to later suffer season- or career-ending maladies. Last summer, for instance, Brooklyn Nets point guard Deron Williams showed up on a cover featuring his team’s move from New Jersey to the Atlantic Yards. In December, Williams suffered an ankle injury from which he is only beginning to recover.
Closer to home, Sports Illustrated’s recent history is even murkier. Robert Griffin III starred in the September 17, 2012 issue as the Washington football team got off to a hot start. He is now recovering from tears to the anterior cruciate and lateral collateral ligaments in his right knee. Similarly, Sports Illustrated put Stephen Strasburg on the cover shortly after his major league debut in June 2010. Two months later, he was put down for Tommy John surgery.
So Harper, upon whom many hopes for a successful 2013 season rest, is the latest Washington athlete to get the wood. This might not bode well. The wisest thing a loyal Nationals fan can do is probably make a ritual sacrifice of a Philly Phanatic action figure.
