More Harper Hype

The story of 16-year-old Sports Illustrated Cover Boy and baseball phenom, Bryce Harper gets more and more interesting.

An article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that he has enrolled at the College of Southern Nevada, where he plans to start attending classes in August and play for the school next season. Can he do that? Does that mean he has to pass his GED?

But remember folks, Harper has just completed his SOPHOMORE year. This is a kid that plans to forgo his high school prom, and all of the fun that being a junior and senior in high school can bring.

Now that he has enrolled in a junior college, he is eligible for next year's 2010draft.

But back to the kid. Is this what he really wants? Or, is this what greedy agents and MLB owners want? Can this absolutely be the best choice for a young American teenager? Sports Illustrated called Harper a prodigy and a man-child and an amazing physical specimen and talent. But he's still only 16 years old.

I have stated quite often on this blog that a kid should go to college and grow up in the disciplined system that a good academic environment can bring rather than choose to go straight to the pro's after high school. Harper isn't even finishing high school. There's no doubt that he is the Lebron of baseball. We have all seen the You Tube videos of him hitting 500 foot bombs with wood. But I think he should at the very least, finish high school. There's nothing like being a living legend amongst your peers. He should stay and try to break every high school record in existence and make his mark.

Then after he graduates, he is free to sign a Scott Boras like pro contract. (Boras is his advisor, but that shouldn't be a surprise.) He would only be 18, and in our opinion, much better equipped emotionally to handle professional baseball. Again, he'd be even more emotionally equipped after his Junior year in college, but all of the baseball experts say this kid is a once in a lifetime talent, so maybe he can handle it.

Whatever the case, he may end up in the same place as this years phenom, Stephen Strasburg. I mean, the Nationals aren't doing a Tampa Bay like, worst to first turnaround anytime soon. Could you imagine those sorry Beltway Bombers actually having two of the most storied recruits of the decade? It could happen folks. It certainly wouldn't be cheap...but they are in Washington...all they have to do is show that they are in financial stress and the government will just bail them out.