The last natural
Subtitle: Bryce Harper's big gamble in sin city and the greatest amateur season ever
By: Rob Miech
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781250001450; 9781250012418
Subjects: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Sports; Baseball players; SPORTS & RECREATION / Baseball / General; Biography
Description: "At his young age, Harper already had dominated high school competition like Mickey Mantle on the playground and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, which dubbed him the "most exciting prodigy since LeBron James." Seeking greater tests as a hitter, the precocious star got his GED after his sophomore year and enrolled at the College of Southern Nevada, where he would face future pro pitchers in a difficult wooden-bat league. Sportswriter Rob Miech was "embedded" with the team--in the dugout and locker room and on team buses and in motel rooms--to provide a warts-and-all account of a boy among men playing like a man among boys. Amid fascinating personal stories including the dynamics between a veteran coach and Harper's overprotective father, the jealousies of teammates and opponents, and the sudden descent of press armies on a tiny college field, the author chronicles a season-long experiment that culmaintes in Harper leading the Coyotes to the Junior College World Series and signing a $9.9 million contract negotiated by notorious agent Scott Boras"--