Hype follows Harper to World Series

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- All questions about the major league draft were off-limits, but Bryce Harper was ready with answers on all sorts of other topics.

Harper, surrounded by an unprecedented amount of hype for a 17-year-old baseball player, faced the media for 30 minutes Friday. That alone was telling.

In any other year, the Junior College World Series would not get a sniff of interest from the national media. But wherever Harper goes these days, a story follows. The interview requests for Harper were so numerous, the NJCAA staged a news conference for him.

"I'm still a kid. I guess I'm a kid that's living a dream," the College of Southern Nevada freshman said. "I'm having a lot of fun doing it."

The Washington Nationals are expected to make Harper the No. 1 overall pick June 7. After the season and the draft, he has big plans.

"I'm going to Oklahoma," he said. "I'm going fishing."

Ten teams are competing in the World Series, but there's no question the spotlight is on one player.

CSN (49-14) plays Pitt (N.C.) Community College (41-11) at 6:30 p.m. today at Suplizio Field in the first round of the double-elimination tournament.

When the Coyotes last reached this destination in 2003, they lost their first game before winning five straight to take the championship.

"If we lose, we're not going to panic," CSN coach Tim Chambers said. "If it was single elimination, you would play with your hair on fire all the time. We have the ability to score runs in bunches. If we get down, we can't panic.

"We have the ability to come back with the aluminum bats."

Harper, a catcher who bats left-handed, put on a show in last weekend's Western District Tournament in Lamar, Colo. In the title game, he went 6-for-6 with four home runs.

That performance added to his legend, which blossomed last summer when he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated after his sophomore year at Las Vegas High School.

At one point Friday, a TV reporter asked, "Bryce, bringing it back to the media, talk about this right now, with this circus, if you will, you've brought to Grand Junction."

It was hardly a media circus, if you will, but Harper was faced by a group of about 20 reporters and photographers, including writers from ESPN.com and Baseball America.

"I'm not even looking at hitting home runs or anything like that … just get in the box and get a couple base hits and help my team win a few ballgames," said Harper, batting .442 with 29 homers and 89 RBIs after 62 games.

"It's going to be an absolute blast," Harper said. "This was our dream from the beginning. We rolled as a team, we got hot when we needed to, and we got here."

Several times, Harper complimented his teammates, and they seem to appreciate the microscope he's under.

"He's the best player I've ever seen. But they expect him to go out there and go 8-for-8 every time with six bombs," said sophomore Donn Roach, the Coyotes' starting pitcher today. "He's shown up and done it. But it's rough when you're 17 and you've got that pressure on you."

Second baseman Scott Dysinger said no CSN player is "jealous" of the Harper hype.

"It's tough to have all that attention and that type of hype around you. I wouldn't want that much attention," Dysinger said. "We understand. He's an awesome player.

"There's definitely more people watching this team because of Bryce, and I expect this week to be crazy."

Harper -- flanked at the news conference by his father, Ron, and Chambers -- said he still does chores around the house, such as taking out the garbage and working in the yard.

"I don't put him on a pedestal. That's everybody else doing that," Ron Harper said. "I try to keep him humble and keep him my 17-year-old son. I have a job to do as a dad.

"It's an iron worker, blue-collar mentality, and that's me. I'm not going to change for anybody or him, and he knows that. We need to stay together as a family."

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