Vegas high schooler makes powerful impression
boston.com
By Stan Grossfeld, Globe Staff | March 10, 2009
LAS VEGAS - Standing on home plate, on a diamond on the edge of the desert, Las Vegas High School assistant baseball coach Harry Traynor shakes his head in disbelief and points.
"We measured it at 570 feet," he marvels, recalling the titanic blast hit by freshman Bryce Harper last season. "Unbelievable. I've been around baseball 30 years. I've never seen anything like it."
That seems to be the sentiment shared by scouts, who drool at the mere mention of the catcher's name. Harper, now a 16-year-old sophomore, is widely touted as the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2011 draft.
When he grows up - and at 6 feet 3 inches, 205 pounds, he's still growing - he wants to be Mickey Mantle.
"I saw the movie '61*,' " Harper says. "I want to be exactly like him."
At this year's International High School Power Showcase, a home run derby at the Tropicana Dome in Tampa in January, Harper bashed a mammoth 502-foot home run. Officials said it would have traveled out of the old Yankee Stadium. Maybe even have hit the elevated train.
Last year, Harper batted .590 with 11 home runs and 67 RBIs in 38 games for Las Vegas High School.
Scary, considering he still has three more years of high school ball to play.
"He's a good one," confirms Yankees regional scout Matt Hyde. "Boy, for his age, he's certainly advanced. He's a strong kid. He's fun to watch play.
"But it's so early. There's a lot of guys who get drafted in the first round that you never hear about. There's so many variables."
This is where, unfortunately, the obligatory questions are asked about whether Harper ever has used steroids, human growth hormone, or any other banned substance.
"Nope, nothing," he says, maintaining eye contact. "It's all God-given. There's no way I'll ever put that in my body."
Harper says he has never taken anything stronger than whey protein and acai berry.
So how did he get so big?
"Yoo-hoos," he says. "I drink a Yoo-hoo every day. And Snickers between games."
One for the ages?
By the time Harper was 3, he was playing Tee Ball with 7-year-olds. At age 5, he slept with his baseball uniform on.
He still sleeps with his baseball equipment.
"Like when I get a new glove or bat, I sleep with it," he says. "You've got to be good to it so it will be good back to you."
At 7, he was playing with 10-year-olds and hitting 200-foot home runs. Opposing teams thought he was lying about his age.
"There have been suspicions since I was 8 years old," Harper says. "I've had to carry my birth certificate around with me.
"Look at my hands, look at these calluses. My hands don't look like a 16-year-old's hands, they look like a man. That's all I've been doing my whole life. Workin' and swingin' every day."
For the last seven years, he has played with traveling teams. That's 100-125 games a year. He played on numerous travel teams, including squads in Arizona and Colorado.
"I was on the road every weekend," he says. "I did my homework in the car. My grades are good. I'm a 3.5 [grade-point average] guy. I love to write."
Asked to compose the opening paragraph to his own story, Harper declines. Too much pressure, he says. Isn't trying to hit a baseball with the game on the line more pressure?
"Yeah, but that's different," he says. "That's good pressure. Like if the bases are loaded and it's the bottom of the ninth, and you're the winning run. That doesn't bother me. That's just another at-bat for me. That's just like it's 10-0 to me."
Harper bats left and throws right. The catcher has big dreams. "[Jorge] Posada is getting up there," he says. "So is [Jason] Varitek and [Bengie] Molina."
Scouts talk of switching him to the outfield. He also has worked out at shortstop and third. Last year he pitched for Team USA in the Pan American Games, and recorded a save against Cuba in Veracruz, Mexico. He was named tournament MVP.
But Harper was born to hit. He always swings as hard as he can, and he talks old school - real old school.
"Joe DiMaggio always said, 'Swing for the fences, kid. Swing hard,' " he says. "My Dad says, 'Hey, Don't get cheated out there.' "
Bean ball
Bryce's father, Ron Harper, has built a lot of Las Vegas, sweating in 120-degree heat, laying rebar on the Strip. But when he got off work, he'd pitch to his young son.
"I try to make him understand that, in life, nobody hands you anything," says Harper. "You have to earn it. I don't want him to have to be an ironworker like me."
When he makes it to the majors, Bryce says, he's going to buy his father a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and his mother a horse ranch. Bryce says he wants nothing.
"I don't care about money," he says. "Well, maybe a '55 Bel Air would be nice."
Bryce says his dad taught him baseball in a unique way. "He used to write on the balls a number and I'd hit it and say the number," he says. "So now I see rotations real well. I also hit beans before a game."
Beans?
"Little red beans," says Ron Harper with a laugh. "The smaller ones, like you see in soup. He just blows them up. It's good for hand-eye coordination. He's shredding them, but every once in a while one would be whizzing by your head."
On the ballfields or in weight training, Bryce never lets up. He knows there could be a kid out there working harder.
"He's motivated himself," says Ron. "It's not like I was this psycho dad trying to train him to be a robot. Not at all."
Confident approach
Asked if he felt like he was robbed of his childhood, Bryce makes a face.
"No way," he says. "There's no other child in the world that had the childhood I have, or been to the places I've been."
He even guarantees he's going to play in The Show. There is no other plan.
"I've always wanted to put on the pinstripes," he says. "But I absolutely love Boston. I'd play anywhere, even Kansas City."
But what if something happens to his dream?
"I know I'm going to make it there," he insists. "If I get hurt, I'll DH. If my swing goes down, I can pitch."
Harper says he wants to go to college. He rattles off schools with stellar baseball programs: Alabama, Texas, Miami. But that could change if he receives what his father calls "life-changing money."
"We'll see," says Bryce. "Maybe I'll pull a [Derek] Jeter and get there when I'm 19."
And The Natural swears he's never going to quit on his team.
"I'm all about my team," he says. "If my team loses, I think it's my fault. I don't think I'll turn into a jerk. It happened to Manny [Ramírez], but it's not going to happen to me. I love signing autographs. I love talking to little kids; that's never going to get old for me."
Will he get an agent?
"You're going to laugh. I have the same agent as Manny. Scott Boras. He's my adviser."
Dad has the last word on this, explaining that he has been referred by a friend to the Scott Boras Corporation.
"There's nothing signed," Ron Harper says. "There's nothing anybody can do right now until he's a senior. We don't want to put the cart before the horse.
"You've got to remember, he's still my 16-year-old kid. I'm still telling him to take out the garbage." |
