In professional sports, when has it ever been a good idea to poke the bear? Bryce Harper and the Philadelphia Phillies sure showed Orlando Arcia and the Atlanta Braves that they better be more mindful of the words that come out of their mouth, lest the opposition use it as bulletin board material. And on Thursday night, the Phillies had the last laugh, clinching the NLDS with a 3-1 victory over the NL East champion.
Now, the Braves shortstop is the subject of mockery from the Phillies players, who will love nothing more than to rub even more salt on Arcia's open and fresh wounds. And during the Phillies' champagne celebration of their NLDS victory, one player already had Arcia's infamous last words immortalized in t-shirt form, taking the mockery to a whole new level.
Lindsey Adler of the Wall Street Journal snapped a photo of the Phillies' locker room, catching one player wearing a blue t-shirt containing Orlando Arcia's “He wasn't supposed to hear it” defense of his Bryce Harper mockery that stands out in a sea of grayscale.
they make tshirts so fast these days pic.twitter.com/6QDlieGZcX
— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) October 13, 2023
The player in question wearing that incredible shirt is none other than Phillies rookie reliever Orion Kerkering, who tallied three scoreless innings for his team's NLDS victory over the Braves.
This is Orion Kerkering pic.twitter.com/5sNc9DFv4B
— Alex Coffey (@byalexcoffey) October 13, 2023
Of all the players that would wear this shirt, it adds a bit of pettiness on the Phillies' end for it to be the rookie reliever. First of all, the Braves will contend that Kerkering isn't exactly in a position to be mocking them, since he's not one of the team's best players anyway. But that's exactly what makes it so funny and even more tilting on the Braves' end. It's like watching someone get carried to an A on a group project and win an award for the said project only for that person to be the one rubbing it in the losing party's faces.
At the end of the day, if Orlando Arcia truly meant for no one else but the Braves locker room to hear his taunts, then perhaps he should have been more cognizant of where the media members were to avoid a repeat of this Phillies situation.