Rough day at the office!

A thought just occurred to me (I love having these moments a few times a year!) about young Mr. Harper and his "life on a stage" antics.

Again, just a thought but I couldn't help but wonder if he like many young Athletic superstars who are thrust onto a big stage early because of unreal God-given talents actually are not far off from all those TV child-stars we hear about succumbing to the worldly temptations and lack of respect for authority, i.e. the law, those who have been there, great advise, etc. Only to eventually see them gracing the cover of the most famous rag known to mankind - The National Enquirer. Inquiring minds DO want to know!

Do they get get raised by well-meaning and loving parents, and as soon as they turn the corner they instantly develop this instant self-gratification and give me what's mine attitude? Reckless abandonment. Entitlement. Disregard.

I love a competitive spirit and edge in a player as much as the next guy. Heck, my son has a very competitive edge inside him, but thank GOD he keeps it in check. Mr. Harper certainly isn't "Winning Friends and Influencing People" this early in his career. One would think that SOMEBODY would sit his hiney down and give him the scoop on how to carry himself. If they don't, he will become a very unpopular and hated ball player by the fans. And teammates. I can only imagine that because these players live and play with each other so many days, weeks, and months a year that they'd kinda like a good, clean, well-rounded, teammate in their clubhouse.

I guess time will tell.

YGD

I do not get any satisfaction from a bad performance by Bryce. One game, one week, even one year does not a career make.

I wish him a successful career and the super stardom that appears within his grasp.

I also wish him the maturity and class that Trout demonstrates. I wish him the ability to be the role model kids need from their heroes.

quote:

Originally posted by bostonbulldogbaseball:
I want my son to emulate Harper's class act. (sarcasm)

MLB is becoming like the NBA; full of low life thugs.

Maybe you should learn more about the game before you continue popping off. It's already getting old.

quote:

Originally posted by biggerpapi:

quote:

Originally posted by bostonbulldogbaseball:
I want my son to emulate Harper's class act. (sarcasm)

MLB is becoming like the NBA; full of low life thugs.

Maybe you should learn more about the game before you continue popping off. It's already getting old.

yezzir.

No excuse for Harper acting like a spoiled jock primadonna. Maybe his parents shoulda taught him a thing or two about humility instead of going gaga over him and letting him grow up the way he has. He's a talented player but I get more satisfaction when he fails. Going 0-7 against the Yankees was a great sight. However, I will give Harper some credit for the way he handled the HBP fiasco.

I just look at a kid like Mike Trout who plays with a hard edge and you don't see him acting like a buffoon. He handles himself like a pro and is very easy to root for. And he's as big a name as Harper is. He takes every excuse made by these jerk jocks or those for them and throws them out the window.

Could someone list all the transgressions that Harper has committed since turning pro?

Off the top of my head I have him down for

1. Blowing a kiss to the pitcher in A ball
2. Smashing the bat against the wall this year
3. ........

Is that it? What am I forgetting?

I went to college with a guy who seemed to do the right thing right off the bat everytime. Me (and most of my buddies) weren't able to do that. We typically screwed something up but we learned from it. Now the other guy kept going on doing the right thing all the time while the rest of us screwed up but those of us who got it made the mistake but never again.

So do we expect Harper to walk on water or can he be a human being and learn from his mistakes?

I just don't see why we have to hold this guy to such a high standard when none of us could reach it ourselves?

It's not so much holding a professional athlete to high standards. They're professional athletes, not brain surgeons or people in authority. Just go out there, play the game hard and carry themselves professionally. Not act like a jerk or throw tantrums. It's not that hard.

Harper always hustles and goes balls-out.

What is offensive to me is watching an MLB player slack, jog down to first on a ground out, etc.

Then there's tools like John Lackey.

There's a number of those guys in the game, let's bang on them instead. A young Pete Rose would probably be ragged on today for being a "show boater."

Trout and Harper have much more in common than some people think.

quote:

Originally posted by coach2709:

I just don't see why we have to hold this guy to such a high standard when none of us could reach it ourselves?

Coach, I (for one) am not holding Mr. Harper to any high standard. And besides the things you listed above, I can't think of any material "thing" he has done to show that he is nothing but human.

But I don't think that qualities like class, professionalism, humility, etc. are high standards. One would think that hopefully his parents would've taught him to appreciate these types of qualities seeing they had a very talented ball player on their hands early. Lord knows I fail miserably daily in several categories so you're right most of us couldn't even make it. But if he doesn't right his own ship soon I just feel like he will have more boo's in the stands then cheers. IMO

I don't wish him bad. I hope he succeeds and (naturally) breaks all kinds of records. I'd just like to see him do it with class like the Dale Murphy's and Cal Ripken's of the world.

quote:

Off the top of my head I have him down for

1. Blowing a kiss to the pitcher in A ball
2. Smashing the bat against the wall this year
3. Deliberately flipping his helmet off on his first Major League hit

And remember he's only been a professional for a short time. I'm sure we could list plenty of players who have done similar things and I'm sure we could also list players who don't have a list this long with much longer careers.

It's obvious that he's got enough talent to be highly successful in MLB. Hopefully he learns to handle his attitude to go along with the talent. He's getting there..

All I'm saying is that it's sometimes hard to hold yourself to a standard of showing class and professionalism. There are days where it is the basic standard you live by and there are days when it is a high standard which is tougher to reach.

I like to think of myself as someone with class and displays professionalism in the classroom, ball field, grocery store or wherever. But you know what there are days / times where it takes everything in me to not lose my head. Then there are the occasional times when I do sorta lose it.

When I look back on my first year or two as head coach I truly wonder why in the world my guys didn't walk off the field because I was an idiot. I believe I got better because one of those guys ended up being an asst coach for me later on. We talked about how differently I was at that point versus early in my career.

There are days in classroom this past school year where that one jerk of a kid just happened to push THAT button. I got ticked off at a group who was rather lackluster in their effort and I lit into them (without cussing or derogatory remarks). Was that displaying class and professionalism? The funny thing is there are some people who won't find fault with what I did while there is another group who thinks I should be fired for what I did.

Bryce Harper is just like us with the exception he can play baseball really well. He will have good days and he will have bad days. The longer he plays the fewer instances of bad days will happen just like with us. Go back to when you started your career in whatever it is you do - did you learn anything from what you did back then that you no longer do now? If you say no then you must be like that guy in my previous post I played college ball with. Good for you because the rest of us make mistakes and learn from them.

I wish people would hold the fans and the media to the same standards that they expect from Harper , I sat in the stands watching Harper's minors league games.
The fans acted far worse towards him than anything I've heard or seen Harper do.
He plays hard,hes intense, gets along with his teammates, doesn't drink or do drugs, got good grades graduated early from HS, went to college and is in the majors at 19.
Every move he makes is in the media who knows how well our kids would handle it.
I think his parents should be proud of him.