Harper dons 'Make Baseball Fun Again' hat

Bryce Harper is standing by his stance that old-school baseball is tired.

After going deep in his first at-bat of the 2016 season in Monday's season opener with the Atlanta Braves, the reigning National League MVP conducted his postgame interview while wearing a "Make Baseball Fun Again" hat.

Harper caused quite a controversy in March when he proclaimed "baseball's tired" in an exclusive ESPN interview.

"It's a tired sport, because you can't express yourself. You can't do what people in other sports do," Harper said. "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."

Harper's comments inspired a new school versus old school debate. Several current major leaguers supported Harper's fun mantra, but there were other legends of the game that opposed his views including Hall of Famer Goose Gossage, who ripped Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista for his infamous bat flip in last year's playoffs, among other violations of old-school unwritten rules in the modern game.