19 Years, 7 Months, and 20 Days

When I was 19 years, 7 months, and 20 days old, it was two years before I graduated from Boston College. I probably spent that day like most days the summer after my sophomore year - either at home or our trailer in York Beach hanging out with my brothers and reading Atlas Shrugged for an essay contest. Unfortunately, my "prize-winning essay" - as I was given to calling it - didn't win. But I considered reading a nearly-1200 page book in the span of about two and a half months a noteworthy accomplishment nonetheless.

Bryce Harper was 19 years, 7 months, and 20 days old today. This was his noteworthy accomplishment for the day:



And to think I considered - at that point in my own life - my greatest athletic achievement to be probably either throwing out a blissfully unaware runner at the plate on the fly from 230 feet away in left-center in an intramural softball game, or sporting a 13:1 K/BB (39:3) ratio in my last year of Babe Ruth. Yes, I kept stats. I couldn't help it. I'm a numbers guy, if you haven't been able to tell over the years I've written on here.

So here are some numbers on Bryce Harper right now: .288 batting average. .375 OBP. .528 slugging percentage. 5 home runs. 22 runs. 14 RBIs. 2 stolen bases. Over 162 games (Harper's played 33), those project to a line of .288/.375/.528 (OPS of .903), 25 home runs, 108 runs, 69 RBIs, 10 stolen bases. Do you know how many players had a line of at least .288/.903/25/108/69/10 last season (Baseball-Reference is a fantastic site)? Three - and they all finished in the Top 2 in MVP voting in their respective leagues. Jacoby Ellsbury, Matt Kemp, and Ryan Braun. Admittedly, not many players, if any, play a full 162-game slate in a given year. But you get my point. The stat line Bryce Harper is delivering at his age is uncharted territory, at least since the legendary teenage seasons of Tony Conigliaro and Mel Ott (for what it's worth, Harper was sporting an OPS+ of 148 before tonight's game).

I don't mean any disrespect to or to ignore the Angels' Mike Trout, who is also a phenomenal young talent and will likely be forever linked to and compared with Harper - but he is 14 months older than the Nationals outfielder, had an extra year and a half of minor league experience, and saw action in the Show in 40 games last year. Comparing him to Harper at this point is a bit apples and oranges.

Anyways, I'm now three years older. By the time Bryce Harper reaches my age, he'll likely be close to having hit about 100 home runs in the major leagues. By contrast, I have hit about 20 between Little League, Babe Ruth, high school, and intramural softball. I have no wild delusions about my own baseball skills nor am I comparing myself to Bryce Harper, but still. News flash - Bryce Harper is very, very, very good.