![]() ![]() While Harper's admirers lauded his success vis-à-vis his history, the lovefest for Trout had everything to do with his first half, in which, despite missing nearly the first month, he made a compelling case for the AL MVP. He has succeeded with all that, and with a relative amount of humility. And that's why I'd pick Bryce: because he came up with so much of the fanfare, came up with so much of the expectations, because he's done it in the nation's capital. "The It Factor that so few big leaguers carry. "You look into his eyes and see something there," Street says. On the player ballot for the All-Star team, Hamels voted for Harper. When Philadelphia starter Cole Hamels hit Harper with a pitch on purpose in early May, Harper embarrassed him by stealing home that same inning. His retorts are tinged with just the sort of obnoxiousness that goes over well in a baseball clubhouse the commingling of "clown question" and "bro" was met with smirking approval. I don't know how anybody can say they'd act if they got that much attention and was that talented."Īmong the most amazing things about Harper is just how quickly he has sold his peers on his game. "Knowing I'm gonna be the first pick in a year and in the big leagues at 19. "You give me all that talent and put me on the cover at 16, I'm gonna be one of the biggest pricks ever," Atlanta second baseman Dan Uggla says. Excuse the occasional fit of immaturity – slamming a bat against the wall in frustration and getting bloodied by the richochet, say – and recognize the list of athletes on whom the world was thrust as a teenager. Sports Illustrated introduced him to the country as a Sweet 16 present, boasting of his 500-foot home run power, and then he dropped out of his school to play junior college ball, where he broke all kinds of records, which preceded Washington taking him with the top selection and guaranteeing him nearly $10 million, followed by a rapid ascent that will see him spend his entire age-19 season in the major leagues.Īnd he's normal. We are, after all, talking about two players who still can't even drink legally.īryce Harper's story makes him more acceptable. Harper is the id, Trout the ego and their peers tried to play the super-ego, balancing the two, arduous though the task was. He hustles like Larry Flynt, hits balls a mile, parlays his different sort of athleticism – a longer, lither kind – into playing outfield like a natural despite having spent all of a season and a half there. Harper's arrogance is endearing, his long swing fixable, his over-aggression something out of which he'll grow. ![]() Your heart sees through prescription glasses. You don't love his arm, but that's OK, because if you love with your head, you see the flaws in a man and accept him for what he is. You love his speed, you love his bat, you love his power. You love how he makes the best catch of the first half look so ordinary. ![]() You love his athleticism, 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds of muscle wound with the precision of a Swiss timepiece. The level of adoration depends more on the body part with which you do your thinking: the head or the heart. Chipper Jones is right: It's easy to admire Mike Trout, and it's just as easy to swoon over Bryce Harper. Nobody else to this point has encapsulated the Harper-Trout debate in such perfect fashion. "But I have a man-crush on Bryce Harper." If he was going to waffle, he wanted to at least add some chocolate chips. Jones, however, mulled the idea for a few seconds. Of the 15 players to whom Yahoo! Sports posed the Harper-vs.-Trout question, nearly half copped out without a choice. "I can't answer it," Chipper Jones says, and he's not the only one. Biggie, a contrast of size, of strength, of style, similar only in an unmistakable brilliance. Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were similar players. Mays debate that persisted throughout the 1950s and well into the '60s. "You've got American League, National League. "That question right there is the one every clubhouse argues," San Diego closer Huston Street says. It's about a new generation of baseball stars whose similarities may end at the respect they've engendered among their peers, Trout through his quiet brilliance and Harper through sheer force of persona. It's about the Washington Nationals' 19-year-old wunderkind and the Los Angeles Angels' 20-year-old MVP candidate. ![]() Perhaps the greatest testament to their instantaneous stardom is that in this All-Star game in which neither Harper nor Trout will start – because not only were they not on the All-Star ballot, they weren't even on their teams' opening-day rosters – they are the chief attraction. An answer is an answer, and it's good enough, even if it might pique the world's curiosity on what the minds inside locker rooms think about one of their own. Sometimes it evolves into a question of why as well, though brevity often suffices within the clubhouse walls. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |