Talking Points: Running into a wall is a clown move, bro

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Life in the big leagues is an ongoing lesson for Bryce Harper.

On Monday night, the second-year outfielder learned an important lesson: Outfield walls are hard.

The 20-year-old Washington Nationals slugger ran headfirst into the right-field wall while chasing a fly ball. The violent collision left him with 11 stitches in his chin, a sore body and a lesson learned.

Harper vowed to keep playing hard, but said he will learn how to avoid crashing into the fence with such force. He was set to sit out the remaining two games of Washington’s series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“He hadn’t been out there enough probably to realize he was even on the warning track,” Nationals manager Davey Johnson said. “Once he hits the fence enough times, he’s going to get the translation to where he feels for the wall and looks for the wall. It’s going to come with experience, and the best teacher in the world is hitting that wall hard.”

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I guess you can say the University of Hawaii is making the rainbow connection.

Hawaii’s athletic department is scrapping a plan to drop the word “Rainbow” from the nicknames of its men’s teams.

The university announced Tuesday it is changing its football, baseball and other men’s team nicknames to the Rainbow Warriors.

The change backtracks from a previous plan announced in February for the men’s teams to be known as simply the Warriors. Currently, the football team is known as the Warriors, while the basketball team is known as the Rainbow Warriors and the baseball team is referred to as the Rainbows.