Bryce Harper poses naked on the baseball diamond — VIDEO

Although John Kruk was an excellent hitter and Bryce Harper has become one this season, the latter put some distinction between himself and Kruk by posing naked for ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue, which comes out online on Tuesday and on newsstands July 10.

Kruk has never posed naked for a magazine as far as Peter Gammons knows. I did find several Internet photos of him eating hot dogs and other ballpark foods.

In the official ESPN The Magazine Body Issue video — the Harper part was shot on the UNLV baseball diamond — the slugging Las Vegas wunderkind said there is no one sexier than Robinson Cano in the batter’s box, and he doesn’t care how that is perceived.

In a semi-related note, after failing to run out a routine fly ball against the Braves on Tuesday, Nationals manager Matt Williams met with Harper, reminding him it was important to run to first base on routine fly balls, because today’s outfielders sometimes drop them when they are being too nonchalant or forget to put down their sunglasses.

It would be a good idea if Harper kept his shirt on when he ran out routine fly balls, or else Joe Maddon probably would call for a replay challenge.

But to paraphrase fellow Las Vegan Greg Maddux, a lot of chicks probably would dig routine fly balls, as they dig the long ball, if Bryce Harper ran them out without his shirt.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.