Good Luck, Bryce
Bryce Harper is back in the headlines again.
After landing on the cover of Sports Illustrated a couple of weeks ago, baseball’s LeBron is once again turning heads and raising eyebrows with news that he is foregoing his final TWO years of high school to take the H.S. diploma equivalency exam – resulting in him being awarded a GED (in the words of Chris Rock, a “Good Enough Diploma”). It was also reported that he intends to attend community college in the fall. All of this is suited to one purpose – to make him eligible for the 2010 amateur draft.
As a likely high first round pick right now, the move makes sense in the respect that he’s not going to really improve his stock much by playing high school ball for two more years. He’s got the body of a 21 year old, and power that’s possibly never before been seen at the high school level. The video of his moon shots at Tropicana Field is impressive to say the least.
But, was this the right move?
In a poll on Yahoo! Sports, I was slightly surprised to see that I was in the minority when I said no. There’s a strong argument both ways. Staying at the high school level risks injury, and playing against inferior competition will be little more than batting practice for him. He is a man among boys, at least physically.
Plus, there’s merit to the strategy of striking while the iron is hot. There’s a lot of money at stake here.
But, there’s an element to this that seems to be overlooked through all of the hype. Bryce Harper is a teenage boy. A boy in a man’s body granted, but still a teenage boy. He’s 16 years old – remember what being 16 was like? Confusing as hell. Imagine having all the pressure in the world to conform to what the baseball machine is making you into. At this point, I am sure he wants it.
This is just the beginning of the attention and subsequent scrutiny that he’s going to face. We have no idea how he’ll handle this. LeBron James was able to deal with the likes of ESPN’s and SI’s intense coverage and the one and only Michael Jordan whispering in his ear. He lived up to the hype – which was the result of more than just talent alone. He was up to the task mentally.
Whenever I hear about a superb baseball talent with seemingly unlimited potential, I am taken back to the story of Drew Henson, arguably the greatest high school athlete in the history of the state of Michigan. He set national high school career records for home runs (70), grand slams (10), RBIs (290) and runs scored (250). He was 40-7 as a pitcher and struck out 528 batters in 285⅔ innings. In football, he threw 52 touchdown passes, he averaged 22 points per game in basketball, and he was a 4.0 student, co-valedictorian (source). He won USA Today National Player of the Year honors in a class that included Mark Texiera, Matt Holliday, Josh Beckett, Gerald Laird and Corey Patterson. He was one of the biggest can’t miss prospects ever (source).
Source: umich.edu
We all know what happened with Henson. Right out of high school, he signed a three-year contract to play baseball for the Yankees in the summer while playing quarterback at Michigan. He initially accepted a scholarship to play football while still at Brighton High school, on the conditions that U of M would not sign any other quarterbacks in his recruiting class or the next, and that he not be redshirted in his freshman year (source).
But, with as much talent as he displayed at the high school level, he was no match for the competition in the minor leagues. The reason turned out to be pretty simple: he couldn’t hit a curveball. At U of M, he lost the competition for starting quarterback to Tom Brady in his freshman and sophomore year. He started his junior year for the Wolverines and had a good but not spectacular season. Instead of returning for his senior year, where he was considered to be a Heisman Trophy favorite and likely number one overall pick in the NFL draft, he signed a six year deal worth $15 million to continue playing baseball professionally.
After a disappointing career in pro baseball, he tried to play pro football, having been a sixth round draft choice of the Dallas Cowboys. He bounced from team to team, desperate to continue a career in a sport that had showed so much promise, only to be rewarded with no success at all, and he is currently a free agent – after having recently been released by the Detroit Lions of all teams.
Were all of the bad results the consequences of poor judgement? Would he have had better success in the NFL had he stayed at Michigan for his senior year? What if he’d played college baseball instead of in the minor leagues, where he was clearly overmatched. Would four years of college have made him a better pro? We’ll never know. But one thing is evident. He certainly couldn’t have done any worse.
Henson’s story is an example of why I think it is unwise for Bryce Harper to leave high school early. There are countless other examples of athletes whose decision to turn pro too early had adverse effects on their careers. Harper’s power display in Tampa is impressive, as are his high school numbers. But that is against high school pitching. A year from now there will be so much hype around this kid it’s impossible to predict how he’ll handle it. He may flourish like LeBron has, living up to the hype in every way imaginable, or he may fade into minor league obscurity, wondering what might have been different had he simply taken his time growing up. The money will still be there in two years instead of next year. He could very well be making a sacrifice much greater than the early payday is worth.
We’ll find out soon enough. With this unprecedented move, the world is now watching.
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