{"id":1216,"date":"2011-04-29T14:55:34","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T18:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=1216"},"modified":"2011-04-29T14:55:34","modified_gmt":"2011-04-29T18:55:34","slug":"bryce-harper-and-the-massive-target-on-his-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=1216","title":{"rendered":"Bryce Harper and the massive target on his back."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Harper, not quite showing the massive target on his back. Photo: Drew Angerer\/The Washington Times<\/p><\/div>\n

With another “incident” involving Bryce Harper<\/strong> hitting the airways, and another round of media members using no originality or doing any analysis and immediately judging Harper based on his “make-up,” I thought i’d comment.\u00a0 This relates to a benches-clearing incident at West Virginia on 4\/26\/11.<\/p>\n

Here’s two video links of the latest incident.\u00a0 One from the RF stands<\/a>, another from behind the plate<\/a> (thanks to Zuckerman’s natsinsider site and csnwashington.com).\u00a0 Watch very closely the first video; the strikeout occurs, Harper stands in place dropping his equipment, and while showing no reaction, no emotion and saying nothing the plate umpire advances towards the opposing pitcher, takes off his mask, and starts to tell him (the opposing pitcher) to back off.\u00a0 Only after all this happens does Harper hear some “magic words” and react. By which time both benches were starting to run towards each other.\u00a0 There was no brawl, just some general milling around.<\/p>\n

Now you tell me: how is that POSSIBLY Harper’s inciting anything?\u00a0 Yes, perhaps it started with Harper’s solo shot in the first, with him and the catcher clearly trading words.\u00a0 Again; who is to say who said what to whom first?\u00a0 For all we know Harper may have been talking trash, and for all we know the catcher may have said something along the lines of, “lucky hit you punk*ss” to Harper as he crossed the plate.<\/p>\n

Because of his bonus, his precociousness, his 40-man roster spot, his SI cover and his accomplishments to date, Harper has such a massive target on his back that its almost impossible to judge these incidents unless you’re there, one the field, taking in the whole context of the incident.\u00a0 It is absolutely unfair to post stories about what happened in Charleston with headlines like, “Harper sparks brawl in minor league game.” Then starts the whole nonsense about his “makeup.”\u00a0 Each incident gives National pundits more ink to post their “concerns” over his make up, his maturity, blah blah.<\/p>\n

People want to talk about the kid’s “makeup.”\u00a0 Fine; lets talk about it.\u00a0 Lesse; he graduated high school 2 years early, he’s devoutly Morman and reportedly has never drank, smoked, chewed or otherwise caroused in his life (how many of these stud-athletes-all-their-privileged-lives can say that?).\u00a0 He’s got an incredible work ethic and has yet to show one iota (as far as I can tell) of behavior that indicates he’s resting on his laurels or that he’s entitled to anything that he has been given.\u00a0 The Washington Post magazine<\/a> did a fantastic article on Harper, his family and his upbringing a few months back, and I dare any reader to come away from that article with anything but the utmost respect for this kid and his family.<\/p>\n

He had two ejections in his college season; one was clearly, absolutely the result of his jealous opposing team lobbing baseballs at him and doing other bush league BS in the pre-game to try to get his goat.\u00a0 The second ejection<\/a> was a ridiculous over-reaction from an umpire who couldn’t wait to show this hot-shot kid who was boss after he made an egregiously bad 3rd strike call (on a ball that may have been in the opposing batters box it was so far outside).\u00a0 Harper didn’t slam his helmet, he didn’t turn around an scream at the umpire; he showed some displeasure over the call and then drew a line in the dirt.<\/p>\n

You watch the videos and make your own conclusions.<\/p>\n

Perhaps you can argue something along the lines of, “well he should know better.\u00a0 He should turn the other cheek and take all this abuse because he should know how the media is going to spin it.”\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 At the age of 17, during your senior year of high school, were YOU that world-weary and have that kind of wisdom?\u00a0 I seriously doubt it.\u00a0 The problem with the media’s TMZ-esque coverage of our young athletes these days is that we continually forget that, well, they’re KIDS.\u00a0 If you did something dumb as a 21yr old, well you’re a dumb*ass 21-yr old.\u00a0 If a 21-yr old 2nd year NBA player does something dumb, its yet another example of a privileged athlete setting a bad example for kids who look up to him.\u00a0 It is never fair reporting, and never takes into account the realities of any of the situations these kids find themselves in.<\/p>\n

As it stands, yeah Harper probably will continue to get into jawing matches with guys who are jealous of where he has gotten himself so early and so well.\u00a0 Its human nature to covet that which you so desperately want but do not yet have.\u00a0 And yeah, perhaps Harper needs to turn the other cheek better.\u00a0 But to blame him for these incidents and lay them at his feet whenever he naturally stands up for himself is just lazy reporting.<\/p>\n

I’m a Harper fan.\u00a0 I’m continually amazed at what he accomplishes at his age.\u00a0 His college season was amazing.\u00a0 So far in low-A he’s recovered from a slow-start and is currently hitting .323\/.425\/.645<\/a>.\u00a0 Playing against guys routinely 3-4 years older than him.\u00a0 If he were any other normal baseball prospect in the country, he’d be finishing up his senior year in high school and getting ready for the draft.\u00a0 Instead, he’s tearing up low-A ball and may very well end up in Potomac on the fast track to the majors before his 18th birthday.\u00a0 All that being said, I WANT confidence and swagger out of my future slugger.\u00a0 The clean-up hitter is never a soft-spoken, lead by example guy.\u00a0 It is always the ego-driven, confident big-hitter who leads the way offensively for his team.<\/p>\n

But lets try to put things in context before we judge him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With another “incident” involving Bryce Harper hitting the airways, and another round of media members using no originality or doing any analysis and immediately judging Harper based on his “make-up,” I thought i’d comment.\u00a0 This relates to a benches-clearing incident at West Virginia on 4\/26\/11. Here’s two video links of the latest incident.\u00a0 One from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natsgeneral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1216"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9883,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1216\/revisions\/9883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}