Harper finds refuge on CSN diamond

A whirlwind summer behind him, Bryce Harper is starting to settle down. He put on his catcher's gear Saturday, crouched behind the plate in 100-degree heat and returned to a quiet place.

Baseball practice has begun at the College of Southern Nevada, and Harper, who would have been a high school junior, is a freshman on the roster.

In the foothills of Henderson, he has found temporary seclusion from the publicity tour. The Sports Illustrated cover story, which touted him as "Baseball's Chosen One," an ESPN feature and the crush of attention from media and fans launched his fame.

Now his father, Ron Harper, wants to shield his son from the madness by putting an end to all interviews for at least the next four months. The player with limitless potential is off limits to the media, for now.

"He doesn't want me doing anything until the season," Bryce Harper said.

In June, the Harper family made an unprecedented -- and to some, controversial -- decision to allow Bryce to leave Las Vegas High after his sophomore year and enroll at CSN.

Bryce Harper, who turns 17 on Oct. 16, is now a college student who will try to earn his GED test credentials in the fall. He must obtain the GED to be eligible to play baseball.

When the Coyotes' season opens in late January, Harper will return to the spotlight and audition to be the No. 1 pick in June's major league draft. He is being advised by agent Scott Boras, and there is speculation Harper could get a $10 million signing bonus.

CSN coach Tim Chambers, a longtime friend of the Harpers, said he sensed Bryce was weary after a circus-like summer. The team started practice Aug. 18, but Chambers made Harper take a week off.

Harper said he has played "maybe 95 to 100" games this year, including his high school season and summer tournaments, which took him to Oklahoma, Arizona, New York, Utah, California and North Carolina.

"It's a lot of travel and a lot of games," Chambers said. "And every time he played, he stayed to sign autographs for an hour. There was so much to do, and he didn't want to turn people down and make people upset with him, so he did it, and I think it wore on him mentally.

"I felt like he was mentally tired and physically tired from playing 100 games or whatever it was that he played this year, and the last 30 or 40 games with cameras in his face and signing autographs.

"I just told him, 'You're not going to do anything for 10 days.' So he had to sit and watch the rest of the guys. It drove him crazy. But the 10 days off did him a lot of good because he's been fresh and lively."

The 6-foot-3-inch Harper hit .626 with 14 home runs and 55 RBIs for the Wildcats last season. He also had 36 stolen bases. His combination of power and speed -- not to mention his pitching prowess -- has fueled the type of hype rarely seen for a young prospect. Harper normally lives up to it, too.

But Chambers decided Harper needed a break in his schedule after he played in the Aflac All-American High School Baseball Classic at Petco Park in San Diego in mid-August.

Harper went 0-for-5 and struck out three times, and a Baseball America writer criticized the performance with this assessment: "He could not catch up to a decent fastball and was badly fooled by every curve. Harper's swing, sound previously, has gone backward."

That's when Chambers said he fully realized that expectations for Harper had soared too high. In reality, he's not going to show off Superman power in every game.

"I actually get frustrated with some of the negative stuff that's out there. People seem to forget that he's only 16 years old," Chambers said. "From a talent standpoint, he's the best we've ever seen at that age. I've never seen anybody who can do the things he does at 16.

"But he'll admit that he's just got to get better and work hard. We're going to try to keep the media off him -- the interviews and TV and all that stuff -- and just let him be a teammate and be one of the guys."

One of his teammates is his older brother, Bryan, a 6-5 left-handed pitcher who has transferred to CSN from Cal State Northridge.

Bryan Harper, who spent the summer playing baseball in Alaska, said, "I called my sister one week, and she said, 'I'm opening Bryce's fan mail.' I said, 'What? Fan mail?' That was pretty funny.

"I didn't get to see too much of it. But from what I heard, it was pretty crazy. You could tell toward the end of the summer he was getting tired. But he was still playing real well. He's always handled it real well because he's always really been in the spotlight."

Bryce Harper turned down an invitation to appear on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" -- the first CSN player who can make that claim.

The Coyotes usually fly under the media radar. That will change next season, thanks to Bryce Harper.

"I think it's great. It's good for the program to get people out here," said Scott Dysinger, a CSN infielder from Bishop Gorman. "It's going to bring all the scouts out to see everyone. There's no need to be jealous. It's going to help everyone in the end.

"Bryce is humble. He's not trying to do too much. He's just trying to be part of the team. I think for the most part, everyone realizes it's going to benefit all of us. I can't wait for it to start."

Chambers welcomes the exposure and is eager to field what should be the Coyotes' best team since they won the junior college national championship in 2003.

"Bryce just wants to play now," Chambers said. "It's time to play, and let everybody else say what they want to say."

Contact reporter Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907.