Not too many people can be considered phenoms at the lucrative age of sixteen. Of course you have Tiger Woods who shot a 48 over nine holes at age three. A mark in which many beer guzzling amateur golfers would be proud of as adults. Lebron James was, and now is NBA MVP and barely missed making his second NBA Finals appearance, all at age 24. Brazilian soccer star, excuse me, futbol star Pele was also a star by age sixteen, making his World Cup debut by age seventeen. Then there is Wayne Gretzky turning pro by age seventeen, then later became known as simply the "Great One." So what you have here is a handful of guys who have transcended (or will) their respective sports. Now you may have another.
Enter Bryce Harper. Featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and already dubbed as the first pick in the 2011 MLB Draft, he is no stranger to accolade on his rep sheet. The Las Vegas native was born October 1st, 1992,(sixteen) and was born to play the game of baseball. Already 6'2'' 205 lbs, Harper is a tremendous catcher, who can also play a little bit of third, not to mention pitch and throw a ninety six mile an hour fastball. From his knees, Harper easily guns runners out at second. Maybe most intriguing is Harper's speed. Last season Bryce scored six different times on wild pitches,....from second base! If that's not impressive enough, he has hit one of the longest homerun balls ever at Tropicana Field (home of the Tampa Bay Rays, a ball that traveled over the jumbo tron.
But ahh, that's just the comparison to warning track power when it comes to Harper and hit monster shots. As a freshmen at Las Vegas High School he hit a shot that traveled 579 feet. Oh My God. Yes, go back and read that again, I did say 579ft, as a freshmen. What else did Bryce throw in for his freshmen campaign? Well just some descent stats. Stats that included a batting average of an unheard of .867 with 41 dingers, 67 rbi's, and done all of which in just 113 at bats. They say baseball is a game of inches, and also a game of stats, but with stats like that you would think Bryce Harper was Jeff Hall of the Resmondo Slow Pitch Softball team rather than a freshman high school baseballer. I mean think about it, most puny freshmen are fighting for JV time on their baseball squads, not ripping balls that would go over the left field apartments at Wrigley. Harper was also the first ever sophomore to be named to Baseball America's All-American first team.
So with knowing that, common sense could tell you he is destined for greatness, and belongs to carry the title phenom. However, what are scouts saying about Bryce Harper? One scout says he has bat speed better than Mark McGwire, in his prime. Another say's he is the best he has ever seen, and no one else even comes close, not Alex Rodriguez, not Ken Griffey Jr. nobody. Pretty bold statement being both were breaking into the bigs fresh out of high school then dominating the game from then on. But just to some that all up, I will let this scout sum it up for me.
"I’m not the only one who feels this way about the 6-foot-2, 197-pound sophomore-to-be from Las Vegas. I spoke to a handful of the more than 300 scouts in attendance on the first day of the tournament about Harper and the responses – from those who have followed him closely to others who had seen him for the first time that day – ranged from “wow” to shaking head in disbelief to “the best high school hitter I’ve ever seen.”
So in a sport filled with a whole lot of bust potential, number one picks who can take years to finally make it to the show, and a game trying to recover from the steroids era you have Bryce Harper. What he represents is something not seen in a player of his age, ever. People often overlook the skill level involved in baseball, but being around the high school and college levels, I have a great deal of understanding of how everything works. So to close I will put it this way. If the majority of people only understood how good a single A baseball player really was at baseball, then it shouldn't take a rocket science to figure out baseball's next big thing.......And he's almost here.
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