In breakout season, Bryce Harper strikes easy balance between baseball, stardom

The details of the story have since escaped Las Vegas High School baseball coach Sam Thomas, but here’s what he remembers.

He remembers getting a call from a local radio station, an in-studio interview request for his 16-year-old power-hitting prodigy, Bryce Harper. He remembers calling Harper’s parents, Ron and Sheri, and getting their approval. And then he remembers broaching the subject with Harper.

It would be a quick drive to the station at the beginning of practice, Thomas explained, and he would have to take Harper because his parents were both at work. It seemed simple enough, but the coach remembers the combative conversation that followed.

“I’m not going,” Harper told him.

“Yeah, you’re going,” Thomas replied. “I already talked to your mom and dad. They said that you’re going.”

“No. I’m not going,” Harper said again. “I’m not missing practice.”

Harper did the interview, Thomas said, but he was not happy about it.

That was the year that Harper mashed a 502-foot home run at Tropicana Field, the year he was pictured on the cover of Sports Illustrated alongside the headline “Baseball’s Chosen One.” Fame was coming fast, and Harper wasn’t averse to it. But really, he just wanted to play baseball.

Roughly six years later, Harper will appear in his third All-Star Game on Tuesday, the second in which he was voted a starter for the National League. The Washington Nationals’ right fielder received more than 13.9 million fan votes, a new NL record. It’s a testament not only to Harper’s first-half performance, but also his emergence as one of the most recognizable faces in the sport.

“I think he enjoys being the top vote-getter. It’s a sense of pride for him,” manager Matt Williams said last week. “And not that it’s brash, but I think he likes that. I think he cherishes that. I know he’ll go and have a great time.”

In the first half of the season, Harper racked up 59 runs, 26 home runs, 63 walks and a .339 batting average, all of which rank second in the NL. He also took a selfie with a fan’s phone on the field, posed shirtless on the cover of ESPN The Magazine’s “Body Issue” and hit a home run with a patriotic bat on July 4. He has grown comfortable both at the plate and in his role as one of baseball’s biggest superstars, a role that he was always expected to fill.

“It’s all secondary to playing the game,” Harper said when asked about his off-the-field commitments. “I think the commercials and things like that, it’s fun for me, it’s fun for baseball, and if I can put baseball out there on the map, I want to do everything I can to help the MLB out. That’s my goal: Playing ball and doing things the right way on the field. And then secondary is everything off the field that I do.”

Harper’s evolution, his successful journey from teenage prodigy to full-fledged star, was no guarantee. The weight of stardom has cramped the careers of other top prospects before. Some can’t handle the attention — the relentless autographs, interview requests and endorsement deals that come with being what the next big thing. Others can’t handle the expectations on the field. Harper, thus far, has handled both.

The 22-year-old believes he is comfortable in the spotlight because he grew up in it. He’s always been among the youngest and most talented players on his team, and he’s been fielding interviews since he was 14. Though Harper never put himself on a pedestal, Thomas said he had a quiet confidence and didn’t dodge attention when it came.

“He wouldn’t go and search for the spotlight,” Thomas said, “but he seemed really comfortable in it.”

That spotlight followed Harper in high school and only grew when he moved on to the College of Southern Nevada. He broke several school records and, at 17, was forced to confront the hype that followed.

One of Harper’s teammates at the junior college, New York Yankees reliever Chasen Shreve, recalled one specific example after a game in the JUCO World Series. The entire team waited for Harper on the bus for nearly 40 minutes so he could sign autographs for a crowd of fans. Eventually, coach Tim Chambers pulled him away, leaving roughly 200 people disappointed.

“They just started yelling at him, calling him names,” Shreve said earlier this season. “I was like, ’He just signed for 40 minutes, and his coach pulled him away, and you guys are yelling at him.’ I was like, ’That’s unbelievable.’ That’s the bad part about being him. But I thought he handled it well.”

Ask Harper’s current teammates about him and they will praise his patience at the plate, powerful left-handed swing, or strong right arm. But many will also praise his ability to handle “everything else” that comes with being compared to LeBron James at age 16.

At a time when most players his age are honing their crafts in Single-A, Harper is signing more autographs, handling more interviews and drawing more headlines than nearly any other 22-year-old in the world. He is also navigating fame in a world of social media, where every tweet and Instagram post is put under a microscope.

“I mean I think that’s just the place that we’ve grown up in,” Harper said. “I could care less about what people say or anything like that. … I just don’t care, really.”

This is Harper now, a superstar whose production on the field has risen to meet the hype that has always followed him. He is accepting of his role in the sport, and the responsibilities that come with it, but his priorities are the same. They haven’t changed since the day he missed part of practice in 2009.

“It’s just of more of trying to prepare play ball and be a part of the team and do the things I need to do to help win ballgames,” Harper said. “And that’s always been my main goal. Beyond the numbers, beyond anything, that’s always been my main goal: To win ballgames.”