CORKY: No such thing as a ‘sure thing’

I wish Bryce Harper well; I really do. But I also wish we could leave him alone for a few years.

Just forget about him and let him be a kid for a while. Grow up a little.

Most ballplayers make it to the Hall of Fame after they arrive in the major leagues.

Unfortunately, somebody told Sports Illustrated about Bryce, a 16-year-old Las Vegas high school sophomore. The magazine looked at his numbers, talked to his father, somewhat of an impresario, and declared the boy a superstar worthy of the SI cover.

Now the youngster is a “can’t-miss” big leaguer, his professional baseball career a “sure thing,” a “no brainer.”

He’s 6-foot-3 and he murders pitching — high school pitching.

But listen to the magazine gush: “He hits the ball a desert mile, clocks 96 on the gun, and he’s only 16, more advanced than A-Rod and Junior were at the same age. And his ambition is as great as his talent.”

Good for him.

But in addition to — if not because of — the beat of the magazine tom-tom, the lad will skip his final two years of high school in the hope he can enter the Major League Baseball draft a bit early.

He has registered at a junior college, intends to go to classes next fall, perhaps earn a GED, and play ball next spring at the college before presenting his talents to the 2010 draft, according to Ron Harper, the father.

“Bryce is always looking for his next challenge,” Mr. Harper told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, adding: “He’s going to pursue his education, too. He’s going to get pushed academically and athletically. I think it will be a great story.”

Certainly Sports Illustrated thought it was a great story.

So was Paul Pettit, baseball’s first bonus baby. He was bestowed $100,000, an astonishing figure in 1950, and crowned with such superlatives as “can’t miss,” a “sure thing,” etc.

Pettit showed up in movie newsreels back before all of us had television sets in our living rooms.

This guy had a blazing fastball — and a movie contract before his 18th birthday. The Baseball Encyclopedia shows Paul’s career encompassing a 1-2 record over two seasons. His “hopping” fastball struck out 14 batters, but he walked 21, gave up 35 hits and finished his career with a 7.34 ERA. He was 22 when the dream ended.

A few years earlier, Clint Hartung, the “Hondo Hurricane” from Texas, was seen as a lead-pipe-cinch, slam-dunk super-hero for the New York Giants both as a pitcher and a hitter.

This guy was Joe Hardy before there was a Joe Hardy to hit all those home runs and make all those marvelous fielding plays for the Washington Senators in the play “Damn Yankees.” Only Hartung didn’t sell his soul to Satan — he just peddled his abilities to the Giants. And they turned out to be fairly scant.

I’m not saying Bryce Harper will be another Moonlight Graham, either. That’s the character played by Burt Lancaster in the movie “Field of Dreams.”

Graham, who really did exist, was a “can’t miss” star circa 1905. He went to bat once for the Giants but got a base on balls and thus was never credited with an official time at bat.

And who knows? Maybe the Harper kid really will be all that his father and Sports Illustrated expect of him.

Problem is, too much may be expected.

The most amazing young ballplayer of my generation was Mickey Mantle, who exploded onto the scene in 1951, out of Commerce, Okla., and dubbed the “Commerce Comet.”

Well, as you know, Mickey did live up to his advance billing and earned his spot in the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y., but not until he struggled as a 19-year-old rookie and was demoted to the minor leagues. It broke his heart and quieted the tom-toms, but it was the best thing that ever happened to Mick.

The best thing that could happen to Bryce Harper would be to finish high school and for people to keep him off the cover of magazines for a while.

Looks like that’s not going to happen.

We wish him well and hope that in time his dream comes true. But somebody needs to tell him it won’t be easy.

Former Tucson Citizen columnist Corky Simpson writes a weekly commentary for the Green Valley News.