Tournament of Stars – Meeting Bryce Harper

Here’s the scoop, after I heard that Bryce was going to be in my neck of the woods playing for the American Legion team at the Tournament of Stars, I had to go and at least see him play.  I really wanted to get his autograph.  So earlier in the week, I went to K Mart to pick up what seems like the last Rawlings wooden bat I could find.  I headed on out to the USA Baseball Training facility at around 3pm.  Went in, picked up a program and hustled on over to the player tent.  I hit it at just the right time as Bryce’s team was sitting in the bleachers watching the 1 pm game.

I went over to the group and asked if they could all sign the bat.  They were all very friendly and all signed the bat.  Actually at 16 they were all kind of excited about signing a team bat.  At first that’s all I was going to go after.  I met Bryce as he was signing the bat and thanked him.  He must have signed at least 20 items while I was there.  Actually seemed to be a real nice guy.  Always saying thank you to anyone who wanted their stuff signed.  Very happy to just be there.  I asked some of the other players how they felt about him, whether the hype was warranted or not.  The answer for the most part, from both teammates and opponents is that he is very good.  There were some nay sayers and there were some serious knocks on him by the few scouts I spoke to.

The biggest knock on him is he is a free swinger and tends to strikout a lot.  So far in the tournament he has struck out 5 times.  Of course he has also knocked the crap out of the ball when he connects.  He is also a catcher and his throws are not as low and tight as they need to be.  He is very fast for a catcher but in the majors, he might want to switch positions to 1st or OF.  He definitely has some serious power, great speed and a hell of an arm.  The consensus is that he is going to be a first round pick certainly.  Offensively he reminds me of a David Wright.  Next year’s draft is week, so expect him to fall in the first to fifth pick region.  As far as I can see, he’s ready for the minors right now.

On a lighter side, I also met his grandparents.  I saw an edlerly couple walking around the player tent and the man had on a LV high school hat.  I had to ask if they knew him and they told me that they were indeed his grandparents.  In typical grandparent fashion, they told me what a good boy he was and how he isn’t letting this go to his head.  As you could guess he is very religious (see the Luke reference), and definitely is very personable.  I think going in I was expecting more of a Matt Bush – like encounter, but truth be told, he couldn’t be nicer.

So back to autograph hunting.  The team from the first game was coming off the field, so I got all of the winning team to sign since the losing team looked very pissed.  So all the players on the Stars team signed my bat.  Also all the players on a NABF team who were waiting to play Bryce’s team also signed for me.  On my way out several of the players from the night game (team RBI and AABC) were in the player’s tent so I decided to go and get some of their signatures.  In all I estimate I got nearly 60 of the 144 players to sign and if it wasn’t nearing 98 degrees out I would have stayed longer, but it was just too damn hot.  Even the players were irritated by the heat.  I just told them be thankful they weren’t playing in mid July when it is really hot down here.

Below are some pictures of the bat, there are so many signatures that guys were signing on the handle.  I’ll try and figure out who signed but in the end it might be feeble.

Bryce Harper (w/ Luke 1:37 reference)