Bryce Harper: Baseball's LeBron?

Completely agree. But it won't stop Boras from trying to continue to circumvent the draft, particularly for his clients, as he continues to cook up a scheme or four for blowing it up.

It's killing his income, you know ...

 

Cross him off then.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/30/sports/a-met-prospect-walks-away-from-baseball.html

 

We'll see, I guess. Verducci was there first if he turns out to be a star.

I was struck by this paragraph in the story:

"Bryce is a normal kid. He snowboards. He played football up until last year. We don't limit him in any way. He loves to play baseball. He would come home after being away playing baseball all weekend, get off the plane and not an hour later be bored and say, 'Dad, let's go to the cage and hit.' I mean, he still sleeps with his bat. He'll get a new bat and go, 'Dad, isn't she a bee-yooty?'"

She described nothing but sports in that paragraph. And the kid is clearly not "normal" by any definition of the term. He may be "exceptional" one day or "burned out" but there is nothing about the kid that's normal.

Stories like this give me the willies because, we as Americans gotta know that pretty damn soon the never-ending gravy train for sports heroes is gonna run out. The advertisers will walk. The discretionary income will shrivel. One more war or attack or something unforeseen...and we'll hit the tipping point.

Now is not the time in America to be making your kids sports zombies.

 

Fixed.

(He's a sophomore/soon-to-be junior)

 

Kid's got a 3.5 GPA and a real interest in religious studies. He's also a prodigy at baseball. When you're a prodigy at a sport that has the potential to pay you millions and millions of dollars, I think it's OK to put a lot of focus on career training.

I think the GED/junior college route is a great idea. He's way ahead of his age already in terms of talent, why keep him in high school where shit is way too easy for him? How many 500-foot homers can you hit before you're ready for the next step?

 

This kid, if he plays in HS again, will take a ball to the ear from some overzelous player who wants to be known.

And what's with the wood bat? Has he ever actually used one?

 

Bryce Harper: Baseball 's Todd Marinovich

 

At that age I ate, drank and slept baseball. It was all I wanted to think about. I can't say anything bad about a kid having that same passion -- especially when he obviously has the tools I wish I'd had. If they'd had batting cages in those days, I would have spent all my paper route money there.

 

I thought Stephen Strasburg was the next chosen one. Pushed aside already??

 

There was a time when SI had a little section called "Faces in the Crowd" for this sort of thing.