You might not have heard of Bryce Harper, but you’ll hear plenty about him in the months leading up to next year’s baseball draft. Think of Stephen Strasburg, with even more hype.
Harper was recently anointed by Sports Illustrated as “Baseball’s Chosen One,” on a cover that evoked the aura of a carnival barker: “570-foot home runs! 96-mph fastballs! 16 years old!” From the accompanying story:
“Harper nearly fell off the couch one day last month when he heard a sports announcer call San Diego State pitcher Stephen Strasburg, the presumptive No. 1 pick in next week’s draft, ‘the LeBron James of baseball.’
” ‘What?’ Harper exclaimed with playful exasperation. ‘Hey, they stole that from me.’ ”
Harper is 16. He just enrolled at the College of Southern Nevada, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He’ll skip his last two years of high school and get his GED instead, and he’ll get the chance to play on the same team with his brother Bryan, who will transfer to the junior college from Cal State Northridge.
However, and most important, he’ll become eligible for next year’s draft, according to Baseball America.
The inevitable outcry ought to be muted. The international signing age is 16, after all. If Harper were a 16-year-old shortstop in the Dominican Republic rather than a 16-year-old catcher from Las Vegas, baseball would permit teams to stage a bidding war over him. If Harper’s talent is so rare that a team wants to gamble millions of dollars on drafting him, why not?
The Washington Nationals almost certainly will have the top pick in next year’s draft, and maybe Strasburg and Harper could jump-start that miserable club. But that could be a costly proposition, since Strasburg and Harper have something in common besides extraordinary talent: agent Scott Boras.
LA Times
So the question is.. Would you let your son/daughter, nephew/niece, leave high school early for a GED to potentially be drafted to a Major Sports team???
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on Jun 17th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
If he’s that good, he’ll be even better once he is done with high school. Contrary to popular opinion, a GED is not the same as a high school diploma. High school is the time and place one comes into his/her own. It is also a place where social skills are learned and developed. This kid is only half-way there! He has so much more to learn about himself and how to interact with other people. High school is not all academics; it also prepares students with skills they need to function as productive citizens of the world.
I think he should finish high school AND at least 2 years of college, but at the very least FINISH HIGH SCHOOL!
Signed,
A high school educator
on Jun 25th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
This is such a hypocritical world. We send our kids to school so they can have access to the best opportunities. then the best opportunity shows up and we say “wait a minute.you need to finish school first.” We say we support your dreams until the kid gets super committed to the dream where nothing else matters, then we say be “lets be realistic, you need something to fall back on.”
I personally don’t believe he has to finish high school in the TRADITIONAL sense. However I totally believe his parents have to put in place a system to foster his intellectual growth and social balance every step of the way.
Let’s take away the BIG check for a moment…
If your child is that advanced is any sport,(Baseball, football, Olympic gymnastics, Diving, Karate, Skateboarding, snowboarding, motorcross, or bmx) chances are you’ve been supporting their dreams over many years. through practice, equipment, camps, tournaments, training tutors, etc. As these kids get better and better the commitment grows. If that kid was going to the olympics the Olympics is their full time job!
At any point in the kid’s career(outside of football and basketball where you obviously need the school in order to play)you may be forced into a decision of tutors, or homeschooling just to continue to support that child’s level of matriculation in the sport.
In general it’s debatable whether or not the school systems could do a better job educating your kid than private educators, and real world experience. But that’s another post.