Jinx? Slump? Stop all the clowning
Don’t go at Bryce Harper with a clown question regarding a Sports Illustrated cover jinx or a sophomore slump.
He is on this week’s SI cover, holding a bat behind his neck, standing in full uniform at the Washington Mall with the nation’s capitol in the background.
The Las Vegas product and young Washington Nationals sensation was the National League Rookie of the Year last season, and he isn’t worried about a drop-off.
“Sophomore slump? I was a sophomore in college and raked,” Harper told the magazine. “Why can’t you rake in the big leagues?”
SI’s highly respected baseball writer, Tom Verducci, sided with the slugger and even raised the bar on the possibilities.
“It’s not difficult to imagine Harper or (Mike) Trout joining Cal Ripken (1983), Ryan Howard (2007) and Dustin Pedroia (2008) in the exclusive club of players to follow their Rookie of the Year act with an MVP,” Verducci wrote.
Now that is some elite company.
It was Sports Illustrated that introduced Harper to the national spotlight in June 2009 by labeling him “Baseball’s Chosen One.”
This week’s cover story is Harper’s first since that issue.
And probably not his last.
■ DON’T KISS AND TELL — National radio sports talk host Dan Patrick asked his near namesake, Danica Patrick, if she would receive the traditional kiss from Miss Sprint Cup if she were to win the Daytona 500 on Sunday.
Danica Patrick, who made the media rounds Tuesday, will start from the pole.
“There’s only one mister that I will be kissing,” said Patrick, who dates fellow driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. “I don’t think that they are going to be wearing a Sprint Cup suit. A kiss from Miss Sprint Cup? I don’t think that’s good. I think that would lead people astray.”
If that’s a concern, no longer making those silly GoDaddy.com commercials would be a good step.
■ BOOTY CALL — Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma has an interesting way of showing affection for Baylor counterpart Kim Mulkey.
Auriemma patted her on the butt Monday before top-ranked Baylor beat No. 3 UConn, 76-70.
The Associated Press published a great photo of Mulkey’s did-he-really-do-that? reaction.
“She was staring at my butt, and she was commenting on it, and I said, ‘Really? How about yours?’ and she went, ‘Yeah, look at it,’ and I went (slap), I’ll teach you a lesson,” Auriemma said jokingly to the Connecticut Post. “And then she started talking about how she only dated Italians her whole life and that she wanted me to set her up with some Italians, and I said, ‘The Italians I send to see you aren’t going to date you.’ We’ve had a long and great relationship since, gosh, she was an assistant at Louisiana Tech.”
Probably not something you would see UNLV’s Dave Rice do to another coach.
■ THE LAST WORD — Magic Johnson was part of ESPN’s crew for Tuesday’s showdown between his alma mater, No. 4 Michigan State, and No. 1 Indiana.
Johnson was asked if the Big Ten Conference ever had been stronger.
“Yeah,” he said, “when I played.”
COMPILED BY MARK ANDERSON
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
