Major League Baseball (MLB) right fielder Bryce Harper has posted yet another facetious photo of himself on social media, this time appearing to be pitching for a place in Taiwan's premier league.
In the Instagram post on Saturday, Harper is seen in a doctored photo wearing the uniform of the CTBC Brothers team, which play in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL).
Harper tagged the CTBC Brothers and their pitching coach Wang Chien-ming (???), who is also his former teammate.
"Chien-ming Wang you need a guy?" Harper wrote below the photo, followed by a laughing emoji, and he pinned his location as Taichung, the hometown of the Brothers.
It was Harper's second playful message in recent weeks, following a similar post last month in which he wrote that he had "some time to kill," and he tagged the Yomiuri Giants of Japan's Nippon League.
Harper, who won his second MLB National League Most Valuable Player title last year while playing for the Philadelphia Phillies, has not been on the field much since Dec. 2, 2021, due to the ninth MLB lockout, during which all U.S. premier league baseball activities have been halted.
With at least 91 games cancelled and no end yet in sight to the lockout, Harper has taken to social media to jokingly prod non-American teams and to engage with his fans.
In response to his Instagram post on Saturday, the Brothers tagged Wang on social media, writing, "Brother Wang, do you need him?"
The post has since stirred up a frenzy of discussions among baseball fans.
Wang, a former MLB pitcher, was Harper's teammate for a year when they both played for the Washington Nationals in 2012.
In a video post Saturday, Wang responded to Harper, saying "He seems as though he really wants to play ball."
When asked what he would do if Harper actually came to Taiwan, Wang said that he would take his former teammate to Taipei 101 and to some less known tourist attractions in rural areas.
Wang also said he would like to see Harper try Taiwan's stinky tofu dish but was not sure if the American athlete would be able to stomach it.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel