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    The Bryce Harper Story: Rise of a Young Slugger
    The Bryce Harper Story: Rise of a Young Slugger
    The Bryce Harper Story: Rise of a Young Slugger
    Ebook253 pages3 hours

    The Bryce Harper Story: Rise of a Young Slugger

    By The Washington Post

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    About this ebook

    Bryce Harper’s unprecedented ascent to the major leagues, from a 17-year-old first overall draft pick to a headline-creating, 19-year-old rookie center fielder for the Washington Nationals, dropped him into the middle of the best season of D.C. baseball since the Great Depression. Washington Post sports reporters chronicled each moment on and off the field, from his first press conference in Washington, to watching him wash dishes after dinner at his parents’ house, to his debut at Dodger Stadium. Nowhere was his journey detailed better than in these collected stories from the Post.

    No one had ever seen a player like Bryce Harper before, and perhaps never had a rookie lived up so completely to his billing. This newly updated e-book from The Washington Post has the stories, the photos and the jaw-dropping achievements as covered by The Post, whose sports journalists have been there for the entire ride. Get your story of a legend today.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDiversion Books
    Release dateSep 26, 2012
    ISBN9781938120626
    The Bryce Harper Story: Rise of a Young Slugger
    Author

    The Washington Post

    The Washington Post has built an unparalleled reputation in its coverage of American politics and related topics. The paper’s circulation, prominence, and influence continue to grow.

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      Book preview

      The Bryce Harper Story - The Washington Post

      The Bryce Harper Story: Rise of a Young Slugger

      The Bryce Harper Story

      by The Washington Post

      Copyright

      Diversion Books

      A Division of Diversion Publishing Corp.

      443 Park Avenue South, Suite 1008

      New York, New York 10016

      www.DiversionBooks.com

      Copyright © 2012 by The Washington Post Company

      Cover design by David Griffin

      Cover image courtesy of Toni L. Sandys/TWP

      All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

      For more information, email info@diversionbooks.com.

      First Diversion Books edition September 2012.

      ISBN: 978-1-938120-62-6 (ebook)

      Introduction

      By Mike Wise

      When asked about his goals as a baseball player, Bryce Harper has a simple answer.

      Be considered the greatest baseball player who ever lived.

      He may just be on his way.

      Harper, whose first season in the major leagues as a 19-year-old earned him National League rookie of the year honors, could be on the verge of even bigger things in his 20-year-old campaign.

      Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, Al Kaline, Ken Griffey, Jr., Mickey Mantle, Frank Robinson, Johnny Bench, and Jimmie Foxx were also tremendous at 20. But Harper could be better than all of them at that age — even the kid who became the youngest batting champion in American League history 58 years ago.

      Just a few games into the 2013 season, Harper is already being hailed as an MVP candidate and one of the premier position players in baseball for possibly the next 15 years.

      But lately, a newfound fascination for his talent and ‘tude has consumed baseball and beyond.

      Maybe because he recently became the youngest player in the game’s 142-year-old annals to hit two home runs for his team on his first opening day. Or perhaps because a scout last month told ESPN’s Buster Olney that Harper’s swing reminded him of controlled violence. Maybe because he’s so good and so young it doesn’t feel like he skipped a grade as much as a generation.

      Whatever, the awe and wonder that accompanied Harper at 19 hasn’t abated at all at 20, which makes him the youngest player in the National League.

      His ability is obviously off the charts, but the reason a lot of baseball people say, ‘This guy plays the game right,’ is the way he hustles all the time, said Nomar Garciaparra, a six-timeall-star who is now an ESPN analyst. As a former ballplayer, the way he runs the bases and goes after balls is what grabs you the most.

      Peter Gammons, one of the game’s most respected chroniclers, believes Harper has a chance to be better than most of the best 20-year-olds to ever play the game for two reasons:

      His drive and respect, Gammons said. He plays with the passion of a George Brett or Pete Rose but he also has an uncommon appreciation and respect for the game.

      Gammons still recalls being told by Harper when he was in the Arizona Instructional League at age 17 that Brett was a player he wanted to pattern his game after. When I told George, he replied, ‘He has to be the only 17-year-old in this country who knows who I am.’ That’s who Bryce Harper is. He gets it when so many others don’t at that age.

      When a writer once told Harper he used to cover the Tigers, Harper floored him by knowing that Al Kaline had become the youngest AL batting champion in 1955. When that story was relayed to Kaline recently, he paused over the telephone.

      Really? he said. Usually young players don’t know players who came 20-25 years before them, let alone 50. I’ve always wanted to meet Bryce Harper. I hope I get a chance soon.

      Let’s take that last sentence in for a second: Al Kaline hopes to meet Bryce Harper.

      The reason I think he can be as good or better as all of us at that age is also because of his size, added Kaline, who was listed at 6-foot-1, 175 pounds but confessed that he was probably 155 pounds when he came to the Tigers as a teenager. He’s just so much bigger and stronger.

      At 6-2, 230 and with a muscled neck with roughly the circumference of a propane canister, Harper is two inches taller and 45 pounds bigger than Brett. He’s got three inches and 35 pounds on Rose.

      The next Charlie Hustle is basically Chuck Hyper, Bam-Bam in a batting helmet. Harper is barely out of his teens, but he’s already among the best young players ever and, perhaps one day, the game — which, of course, is dangerous to even think about.

      You don’t forget the age, but what we need to forget about is trying to compare, Garciaparra warned. We get caught up so much in trying to compare somebody to other greats and put more expectations on them. ‘Well, gosh, Ken Griffey Jr., did this.’ Wait a minute — we’re already comparing him to a Hall of Famer? Give him time to just be Bryce Harper. That’s enough right now.

      Part I

      The Harper Hype

      Bryce Harper, center, of the College of Southern Nevada waits to bat during a game against the College of Southern Idaho on Thursday May 13, 2010. (Marlene Karas)

      For Nationals, a brighter horizon

      By Adam Kilgore

      Tuesday, August 17, 2010

      On Monday afternoon, the third-floor offices at Nationals Park buzzed with an upbeat atmosphere. Back in early June, on the day they drafted Bryce Harper first overall and the day before Stephen Strasburg became a major leaguer, the men in charge of the Washington Nationals believed they could orchestrate the team’s most impressive draft since baseball returned to Washington. More than two months later, the final steps had come into view.

      There was still work to be done, and it would not end until seconds from the midnight Monday deadline. Only then did the Nationals finally agree to a deal with Harper and agent Scott Boras—a major league contract. The Nationals, for the second straight season, had drafted a slam-dunk first overall choice and signed a player with a mountain of hype behind him.

      With a full minute, Mike [Rizzo] and I thought we were not going to have a deal, Nationals President Stan Kasten said. The deal was worth $9.9 million over five years with a signing bonus of $6.25 million, which matched the highest signing bonus a position player has ever received.

      In Harper, a 17-year-old outfielder and power-hitting prodigy, the Nationals could have an offensive answer to Strasburg, a generational talent reliant on sheer power who could become one of the forces that lifts the franchise to prominence.

      The Nationals may have felt confident in their chances to sign Harper, but they weren’t sure until the ink was on the paper and the deal had been called in to Major League Baseball’s New York offices. With an hour before midnight, they still wondered if maybe Harper wouldn’t sign. No idea, one high-ranking team source said.

      Harper gained notice in scouting circles when he launched a 502-foot home run with a wooden bat at a high school showcase as a freshman. He gained widespread fame when he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated—anointed as Baseball’s Chosen One—at 16. He chose Boras as his advisor, earned his G.E.D. in order to skip his final two years of high school and dominated older competition in his only junior college season at the College of Southern Nevada. During the regular season at CSN, Harper hit .442 with a .986 slugging percentage and a .524 on-base percentage and hit 29 home runs. The old school record, achieved with a metal bat, was 12.

      I didn’t think there was any way someone would hit 15, 20 home runs with a wood bat, said CSN teammate Tyler Hanks, a Nationals draft choice now pitching for their Gulf Coast League affiliate.

      When the Nationals drafted Harper, they declared he would turn from a catcher to an outfielder in order to hasten his ascension to the major leagues. Harper could reach the majors by the end of the 2012 season. At that point he would be 19, an age at which Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez and Justin Upton —three other teen-aged top picks—were playing in the majors.

      Since Harper has not played organized baseball since his college season ended in June, he would likely begin his professional career in the lower ranks of the Nationals’ minor leagues. The competition at first, like the pitching he faced in junior college, may or may not test him.

      He’d dominate, Hanks said. He’d absolutely dominate.

      Harper’s biggest challenge may be assimilating into his first teams amidst largely anonymous, potentially skeptical teammates. His fame and riches will instantly set him apart. Nationals executives and former teammates have consistently defender’s Harper’s character, but his brash reputation has made some disenchanted.

      Players on the Nationals’ Gulf Coast team have taken to wearily asking Hanks about Harper. They’re like, ‘I hear he’s a [jerk],’ Hanks said. But Hanks believes Harper has proven his character in a difficult setting.

      Opposing players constantly heckled Harper; one team’s players intentionally overthrew one another during warm-ups, trying to hit Harper with long-tosses. Nobody could have done a better job, Hanks said.

      Harper would be the crown jewel to a draft class the Nationals believe to chocked with potential impact players. Before Harper had finalized anything, the Nationals finished off three signings for well over the price recommend by Major League Baseball that represented a haul even without one of the most highly touted amateur players ever.

      The Nationals hope to never pick first overall again. But they know how lucky they are to have lost 205 games combined in two seasons that allowed them to pick Harper and Strasburg in consecutive drafts.

      It’s never happened before, Rizzo said.

      The saga of making Harper a National began June 7, when they drafted Harper out of the College of Southern Nevada. Rizzo initially hoped the Nationals could sign Harper soon; Kasten bet him $1 that would never happen. When talks did not progress immediately following the draft, the Rizzo realized the negotiation would linger until close to the deadline.

      Monday night, the Nationals and Boras began building the framework of a deal by 11, early enough, they thought, to avoid a last-second showdown. And yet, Kasten said, there we found ourselves again.

      But the Nationals knew how badly they wanted Harper. Kline, in his first year as scouting director, had watched him play since Harper was 15. Harper reminded Clark of Jason Heyward, the uber-prospect he had scouted, drafted and signed as the scouting director for the Atlanta Braves. Don’t ask me which one I would take, Clark said.

      So, as the seconds ticked down, the Nationals and Boras pushed aside small differences. They had come far enough that both sides knew leaving a deal on the table would be absurd.

      You go down to the last second until somebody blinks and you make your last-ditch effort, Rizzo said. Once the smoke cleared, we had common ground to get a deal done.

      And when, exactly, did the smoke clear?

      We don’t know, Kasten said. It’s not an exaggeration. I can’t explain it or brag about it. But it was inside the last minute.

      By the end of the night, including Harper’s pact, the Nationals had signed four players in a day. And now, those four players will join forces with Strasburg, and the Nationals future looks brighter now than it did the day before.

      They hope they never have sign a first overall choice again.

      Harper takes his hacks in D.C.

      By Adam Kilgore

      Friday, August 27, 2010

      On Thursday morning, before he scalded a ball into the third deck at Nationals Park and before his grand introduction to Washington, Bryce Harper introduced himself to the city where the Washington Nationals believe he will become a star, their cornerstone.

      Harper went for a jog, but in the style one might expect only of a carefree 17-year-old who smears eye black on his face like war paint and wears a jet-black suit with a hot-pink tie to his first professional news conference.

      As part of his morning run, Harper climbed shirtless up the steps of the U.S. Capitol, a headband wrapped around his forehead, just below the spiky faux-hawk. He pumped his arms like Rocky. When he returned to his hotel room, he gave his father a report.

      He said, ‘Everybody was looking at me like I was crazy,’ Ron Harper said later. I said, ‘Well, Bryce . . .’

      In his first trip to Washington and first day spent with the Nationals, Harper made clear both why the Nationals selected him first overall and his nonchalant comfort with the attention heaped upon him for it. In the afternoon, he clobbered 12 home runs during batting practice, one in the top deck, where only bombs by Adam Dunn have ventured, and several into the bullpen in left center field. The first word Nationals hitting coach Rick Eckstein said when asked about the display: Wow.

      It felt like home, Harper said. I’m like a little kid in a candy store. In the evening, Harper sat at a dais between General Manager Mike Rizzo—the man who called him a cornerstone of the organization on and off the field—and agent Scott Boras, his representative. MASN made it the centerpiece of its pregame show, replete with an emcee.

      Ryan Zimmerman—the face of the franchise, Rizzo said—entered the room for a moment to cover Harper’s shoulders with a No. 34 Nationals uniform. He hands out the jerseys, Rizzo said.

      It’s going in my next contract, Zimmerman said.

      Harper slapped on a red hat with a white curly W and sat before a room full of reporters, his family and members of the Nationals ownership group. Quickly, Harper introduced a new phrase to the franchise’s lexicon. He explained that during batting practice earlier he had hit several oppo boppos —opposite field home runs.

      In the three months since Harper played his last junior college game (from which he was ejected), he took batting practice on his own and lifted weights with the Las Vegas High School football team. Harper, a self-described baseball rat who constantly traveled to tournaments as a kid, had never gone so long without playing a baseball game. It was a horrible break, he said.

      In roughly two weeks, Harper will report to the Florida Instructional League with several other high draft choices for the Nationals, Rizzo said. The Nationals may send Harper to the Arizona Fall League afterward, but they have yet to set a definite plan.

      The real question remains: When will Harper don a Nationals jersey for real?

      I have no idea right now, Harper said. "I’m just trying to get out there and show what I can do. I’ll let the higher power take care of that.

      But I set high standards for myself. I think I should be perfect in every aspect of the game. I love playing. I live for baseball.

      During the day, Harper chatted with St. Louis Cardinals all-star first baseman Albert Pujols, which apparently was no big thing.

      I’ve known Albert for a while, Harper said. He met Dunn, which was awesome. He’s hilarious, Harper said. He might be one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met. He still has never spoken with Stephen Strasburg.

      All Nationals employees wore suits to the park. (Nothing better than dressing up for a 17-year-old, one of them said.) Harper made his first appearance during batting practice, when he jolted balls like any big leaguer, only farther.

      He showed the ability to hit powerful line drives to the opposite field and to the pull side, Eckstein said. He really showed a very short path to the ball, a very quick bat through the zone. An advanced approach for his age, definitely. Some of the things he was talking about hitting-wise, his feel for what he as trying to do, he was really advanced for his age.

      Harper appeared just as comfortable at the podium as in the batter’s box.

      About his haircut, he explained, I actually just got that. My sister is a beautician, so she tries different things on me. The ladies like it, so . . .

      Harper said his first big purchase would be to fix the dent in his 2000 Toyota Tacoma, which has 120,000 miles on it. A reporter asked if he would buy a new truck. Why? Harper said. It’s awesome.

      I’ve had a lot of people around me my whole life, Harper said. I’m really used to it now. I’ve had a lot of media, a lot of little kids looking up to me. That’s the biggest, trying to teach the little guys how to go out there and have fun. Just go out there and play ball.

      That will come. For now, the Nationals will wait for him to grow, his first impression enough for them to believe it will be worth it.

      He was pretty impressive, Eckstein said. Wasn’t he?

      Harper gets down to business

      By Amy Shipley

      Saturday, September 18, 2010

      There were plenty of enticing targets beyond the outfield fences. Rows of school buses sat just beyond one. A giant lake encroached on an adjoining field. A row of parked cars rimmed a third. A pair of regal bald eagles even soared overhead at the Washington Nationals’ expansive minor league complex, the place Bryce Harper showed up for his first day on the job.

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