Red White and Bryce

Baseball's most protracted, frustrating and excruciating free agent journey is over. Thursday, nearly a week after exhibition games began, Bryce Harper chose the Phillies.

Agent Scott Boras delivered on his promise of landing the biggest contract ever in baseball. Owner John Middleton delivered on his wisecrack about spending "stupid money." And the Phillies, who collapsed in the final seven weeks after grabbing the lead in the NL East have the player they expect to be their difference-maker.

If you've been following the Phils for a long time, you'll recall another big money (for its time) free agent who was brought in as the "missing link." A year after arriving at Veterans Stadium in 1979, Pete Rose helped bring the franchise its first World Series championship. That's the kind of pressure Harper will face from some of baseball's most demanding fans.

There's been buzz that the Las Vegas native didn't like Philadelphia -- yet, almost every Phillies legend came from elsewhere. Just succeed and he'll learn to love the area. Just like Richie Ashburn of Tilden, Nebraska; Steve Carlton of Miami; Mike Schmidt of Dayton, Ohio; Chase Utley of Pasadena; and Ryan Howard of St. Louis. 

Harper will now play half his games in his favorite road park -- he's hit more home runs in Citizens Bank Park than anyplace besides his former home field in DC. And he'll fit inside a beefed up lineup alongside J.T. Realmuto, Andrew McCutchen, Jean Segura and a core of home grown talent that tasted a pennant race for the first time in 2018.

Bryce Harper could be -- and at his price, had better be -- the man to turn that taste from sour to sweet.