Bryce Harper Shaping Up As Real Deal

Now that we have a sample chapter of Bryce Harper’s career to go on it seems to be that we could tell the story of the book by the cover. After Harper’s three-hit game Tuesday night as the Washington Nationals bested the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-2, he was batting .307 with a .390 on-base percentage. That is not the stuff of rookies. That is not the stuff of players who are of the age of guys who would more likely be sophomores in college.

There have been suggestions for years that Harper was a baseball prodigy, a star in waiting, a star in the making. He and his family seemed to recognize this early enough on that he even manipulated his high school career to get out of public school early with a GED, just so he could play ball at a higher level.

Well, so far, young Mr. Harper hasn’t found a level high enough that will make him struggle, that is too good for him.

The Nationals did their best to hold Harper down on the farm, actually in the farm system. They exiled him to the minors, supposedly for his own good, to ease him along. However, it didn’t take. There has been very little easing in Harper’s life. Whenever anyone tossed him a baseball mitt and bat, he knew what to do with them.

Wherever he has played, at whatever level, Harper has excelled. He understood his destiny was going to be the majors and he shaped his life and led his life with that goal and destination in mind. It wasn’t just idle dreaming. He was right all along, better than he had a right to be as he passed each milestone and marker.

Accelerating his schooling and baseball education, Harper was just 17 when he signed on to play for the College of Southern Nevada, a junior college. You know what his numbers were? In 66 games he smacked 31 homers, drove in 98 runs and batted .443. He had a six-for-six game and broke the school record for home runs, which used to be 12. By how much? Right. Oh yeah, he was the player of the year in his league.

After becoming a No. 1 pick of the Nationals, Harper batted .317 in the instructional league and then showing that the instruction took, he batted .343 in the Arizona Fall League. Despite Harper batting .399 in spring training, the Nationals shipped him out to the minors in 2011. He started 2012 at AAA Syracuse, but after team officials pledged to keep Harper in mind they couldn’t resist bringing him to the majors after less than a month.

Now the kid is playing like a grown-up in the majors and there is nowhere else to send him. He has even shown he has the maturity to handle the press pressure. Since the drinking age in Toronto is 19, someone asked Harper if he was going to celebrate bashing a 450-foot home run with a beer. Harper is a Mormon and doesn’t drink. His response was, “That’s a clown question, bro.

I think we can take that as a no. Give the guy a lemonade and call it a night.