Bryce Harper: 19-Year-Old Shouldn't Have to Prove Maturity to MLB

What were you doing at 19?

Bryce Harper is expected to present himself like an MLB veteran despite the fact that he’s only 19 years old. His countless critics need to give him some breathing room because they can’t expect him to be the most mature player in the majors at his age.

Put yourself in Harper’s gold cleats.

People have been hyping this kid up in the national spotlight since he was 16 years old. At 17, he signed a multimillion-dollar MLB contract.

Do you know what most teens do to make money? Flip burgers.

That level of instant stardom can go to someone’s head. In fact, if that success doesn’t inflate your ego, you should be nominated for the Most Humble Person on the Planet award (if that exists).

Sure, Harper isn’t eligible for that honor. So what?

He blew a kiss at a pitcher after a home run in the minor leagues. I hate to play the but-at-least-he-didn’t-do-that card, but, seriously, at least Harper didn’t flip him the bird.

More recently, according to Adam Kilgore of The Washington Post, Ozzie Guillen complained that Harper used too much pine tar on his bat and that he was unprofessional. In his second at-bat, Harper pointed his bat at Guillen, and the manager wasn’t amused. He said after the game:

"

What he did [today] was unprofessional. I’m not going to tell you guys what he did because I’m not going to be talking about it on ESPN, Baseball Tonight, what happened again. I’ll just leave it like that. I’ll talk to his manager in a little while.

"

Again, how many 19-year-olds in his position would know how to act professionally?

Harper wore gold spikes to the All-Star Game, and Skip Bayless used his bravado to draw a comparison to LeBron James.

Such a comparison is bogus. LeBron was acting a fool when he was 26 years old (see: Big Three South Beach party). Only recently did he become, to quote Guillen, “professional.”

Bayless has beef. Guillen has beef. Cole Hamels has beef.

Well, if critics don’t want to enjoy the fact that a 19-year-old is taking Major League Baseball by storm, then they should go ahead and be blinded by hate. I’m sure they would’ve never acted that way at his age.

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

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