Bryce_harper_black
Truth.

I’m beginning to hate the Washington Nationals more every day. It should come as no surprise that the team who signed Jayson Werth to a $126 million (really, I don’t think there is enough national outrage of this ludicrousness of this contract) would compare their own Baby Jesus, Bryce Harper, to… Jackie Robinson.

From Tom Verducci’s SI piece: [via The Big Lead]

Harper, a travel-baseball phenom out of Las Vegas at 10, an SI cover boy at 16 and a $9.9 million signee at 17, is the most well-known minor leaguer since Michael Jordan. But Jordan was a novelty, not a prospect. Harper is the most scrutinized prospect since….

"Jackie Robinson," says Tony Tarasco, a former major leaguer and a Nationals minor league coordinator who has become Harper's player-development Yoda. "You have to go back to Jackie Robinson to find anybody who goes through this much scrutiny. It wasn't like this for [Stephen] Strasburg. Wasn't like this for Alex Rodriguez."

Jackie Robinson? Surely Doug Harris, the Nationals' director of player development, with 21 years in pro ball as a player, scout and executive, would find a different comparable for Harper. Independent of Tarasco, Harris offered, "This is really unfair and it's totally different, but if I can make a comparison to one guy that has been scrutinized like this, it would be Jackie Robinson. And it's unfair because it was a different standard. He was under a microscope in an era when we didn't have Internet, didn't have cellphones.

"Now, Jackie Robinson had his life threatened. I'm not comparing Bryce to that. But as far as nonstop scrutiny? Absolutely. Day to day."

 

Really? Seth Meyers. Really?

Look, I’m all for analogies. Love them. Think you can take something to the extreme to illustrate your point. But that’s not what’s going on here. Harris very clearly related the scrutiny faced by Harper to that of Jackie Robinson, who had numerous death threats (among other things) for breaking the racial divide. Harper, on the other hand, is a cock. Example.

It’s fair to say that harsh rhetoric like mine is unfair and a lot to handle for someone under the age of 20, or anyone for that matter, but come on, guys. Really? Really?

I’m telling you, you’re going to hate this kid. But not in a Jackie Robinson sort of way, more like in a he thinks he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread and is way more disrespectful than any self-respecting 18-year-old should be so, as sports fans, we’ll root against him sort of way.