EDITORIAL: Field of dreams for Las Vegas sluggers

Las Vegas doesn’t have a Major League Baseball franchise, but it soon might have its own All-Star team.

Bryce Harper is having a breakout season. The Washington Nationals outfielder has a .329 batting average and leads the bigs with 18 home runs, 44 RBIs, 45 walks, a .718 slugging percentage and an OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) of 1.188. The Las Vegas High School and College of Southern Nevada product, picked No. 1 overall in the 2010 MLB Draft, was named National League Player of the Month for May.

Meanwhile, Kris Bryant, the No. 2 pick in the 2013 draft by the Chicago Cubs, was called up to the majors two weeks into this season, and the Bonanza High graduate has delivered a .273 batting average, with seven homers, seven doubles and 33 RBIs. He was named National League Rookie of the Month for May.

Those two Sin City sluggers were joined this week by Joey Gallo, a Bishop Gorman High School graduate who was called up straight from Double-A ball this week by the Texas Rangers and made an immediate splash, leading a 15-2 home rout of the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night. After singling in his first at-bat, Mr. Gallo launched a majestic 430-foot home run, followed by a double off the top of the wall. He finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs.

Mr. Harper is 22, Mr. Bryant is 23 and Mr. Gallo is just 21. It’s not only amazing that they’re performing at such a high level at such a young age, but that all three come from here and know each other quite well, competing with and against each other dating back to Little League. (A great photo making the rounds on the Internet and in social media shows an 8-year-old Harper and a 7-year-old Gallo on the same squad.) The talented trio have turned a fantastic local story into a national one. Mr. Harper leads National League All-Star Game balloting, with more than 2.3 million votes.

For a city that doesn’t have any big-league sports (though a team might play here soon), it’s impressive that these three young men and so many other local athletes are becoming stars, in baseball and other high-profile sports. And this year’s MLB Draft is Monday, with more promising Southern Nevadans in the mix.

That says a lot about the quality of youth sports and coaching in the valley. We all should take pride in that — and in Las Vegas’ boys of summer. It won’t be hard to do so. They’re on “SportsCenter” every night.