I know a baseball player on a fastpitch softball blog…seems kinda weird, but I thought this story was interesting and was curious to hear your thoughts on it!
If you follow baseball or read Sports Illustrated, then you’ve probably heard of Bryce Harper. I actually just heard of him for the first time this week via conversations that were going on over at Twitter.
Apparently an article recently came out that this young man will take a high school equivalency test and forgo his last two years in high school in hopes of entering the MLB draft earlier. He’s actually registered at a community college and will start taking classes in the fall as well as play baseball there next season. He then hopes to enter the draft in 2010 or 2011 since players become draft eligible at age 16 if they have already completed high school.
There are two main thoughts that run through my head when I think about this situation:
1. Provisions should be made for higher education (in case he blows his millions and has a career that’s prematurely shortened for whatever reason)
2. There no doubt will be others ambitious parents out there who think they should take this route with their kid even though their child is no where near the one in a million type prospect that Harper is
What do you think about Harper Leaving High School Early?
I’m concerned about the Harper decision for several reasons. First, I at least commend the family in that the young man will have obtained his High School equivelancy diploma and attend/play for Community College. They at least thought it through. Also, I agree that additional secondary education should be planned for EARLY. However, here is why I don’t think the decision was a goon one:
Emotional maturity is different than physical maturity. Can he emotionally handle the challenges that MLB players face? What about the pressure? Will this help or hurt the big picture in his career?
Next, let’s talk about physical maturity. He’s still a boy. This is not to say he’s not strong, powerful, or talented. But even LeBron James said – at the age of 25 – that he’s just now coming into his “man strength.” God forbid this young man uses substances to compete to live up to the SI articles on how good he is.
Last, I believe MLB shoudl be responsible to create eligibility rules to prevent this from occurring in the future.