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CHICAGO -- You might be surprised but when it comes to fist pumps and bat flips, 62-year-old Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon and his mild-mannered NL Rookie of the Year don't have a real problem with it. We know how Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper feels about the concept -- he's outspoken about it -- but Maddon and Kris Bryant are OK with, well, whatever. "If I grew up with it, and it was just part of the game, sure. I think everyone would do it, but it's not 100 percent there," Bryant said recently. "There are guys that do it certain ways and guys that don't and that's cool to me. I like seeing different personalities. That's what makes it fun." Said Maddon: "For the most part I don't have a problem with most anything as long as a guy plays hard, works hard." Harper has been upfront about wanting baseball to change its old-school ways and throw out the unwritten rule book. He's bound to show some emotion this weekend at Wrigley Field as the top two teams in the National League face off for a four-game series. He and Bryant are both from Las Vegas and played together growing up, but they have different personalities and sometimes that shows up on the field. "It's hard for me to get out there and bat flip because half the time I don't know if it's a homer or not," Bryant said with a smile. "I just put my head down and run and not try to show anyone up. Especially me so early on in my career I don't want to ruffle feathers. I just want to go out there and play my game. That's how I've always been." Maddon concurred with youth being a factor in how you conduct yourself. Or rather experience. Harper is young -- but he's established. The Cubs' manager was quick to come down on former outfielder Junior Lake for a bat flip in Miami last year, but mostly because Lake hadn't done anything in his career. "Depends on who's doing the bat flipping," Maddon said with a half-smile. "If you've played for like two weeks and you're flipping bats, you're going to get yourself hurt. "The fist pumping? I've never minded that. Dennis Eckersley was a big fist pumper. There's other guys -- maybe a little more stoic." Maddon also agreed there have always been guys with their own way of doing things. It's not just a recent phenomenon. People forget that. Even Bryant could appreciate it watching baseball growing up. "I used to love to watch Lance Berkman," Bryant said. "When he hit a home run he would just put the bat on the plate. I don't know if pitchers thought he was showing them up, but it was his thing. Then you think of Bret Boone and his little bat flip. It's been out there." So are Harper, Bryant and Maddon that different in their thinking? It doesn't sound like it -- it's just that Harper is more outspoken about it. "Baseball's tired," he told ESPN the Magazine recently. "It's a tired sport, because you can't express yourself. You can't do what people in other sports do. I'm not saying baseball is, you know, boring or anything like that, but it's the excitement of the young guys who are coming into the game now who have flair. If that's Matt Harvey or Jacob deGrom or Manny Machado or Joc Pederson or Andrew McCutchen or Yasiel Puig -- there's so many guys in the game now who are so much fun." And that's Bryant and Maddon's point as well. Let people be themselves. If that involves some flair, so be it. For Bryant, he's not one that needs it but is OK if others do. "There's a lot of different personalities and that's what makes it attractive for fans," Bryant said. "For me baseball is fun. I enjoy every minute of it. There's no time out there that I can't find myself smiling. For me baseball is in a pretty good spot." So while he differs with Harper on the "tired" notion he respects Harper's views. And Maddon wouldn't mind it if old timers could remember what it was like when they were young. "That's the thing we forget," Maddon said. "That's what's so disappointing sometimes growing up in the era that we did and then you see people that are in charge and they've forgotten what it was like when we were a bunch of goofballs for lack of a better term. "It bums me out when I see that. It really does. You'd like to see there was an evolution of thinking moving forward." As for Harper, Maddon likes him because the times he has seen him play he hustles and plays the game the right way. Some might see it different, but the Cubs manager respects what the reigning NL MVP brings to the table. "I have no problem with the guy enjoying playing the game," he said. "I think he respects the game and his place in the game."
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