In fighting Jonathan Papelbon, Bryce Harper seals his future with the Yankees

Earth was stunned yesterday - (that's nothing, Mars wets itself) - when Jonathan Papelbon tried to throttle Bryce Harper in the Washington Nationals dugout, apparently after Harper pulled a Robbie Cano on the base paths.

It's official. Harper is going to be a Yankee.

The Steinbrenners should retire his number 34 right now, in anticipation of his arrival.

The guy hates Papelbon. That's good enough for me. He's a future Yankee.

Harper, age 22, may win the NL Triple Crown. In 2017, he becomes arbitration-eligible. The Nats aren't going to want to pay him. Besides, two years later, he's a free agent. He'll go on the market at age 26. The Nats still won't have won anything. (Quite possibly, neither will we.) But A-Rod, Tex, CC, Beltran and even Stephen Drew will be off the books. By then, Harper will have outgrown his Justin Beiber potty-training phase. He'll be hungry for a ring.

It's well known that Harper grew up a huge Yankees fan - (who else do you root for in Las Vegas, other than the team that the oddsmakers always like?) He recently tweeted that Yogi Berra was one of his all-time heroes. If we sign him for 10 years, he'll still be younger than Beltran was when we gave him a three-year deal.

Write this down. Here's the 2019 Yankees lineup:

ss Jorge Matos
lf Jacoby Ellsbury
cf Bryce Harper
rf Aaron Judge
1b Greg Bird
 c Gary Sanchez
dh Jesus Montero
3b Yangervis Solarte
2b Dustin Pedroia

Read it and weep.