Larry Brown Sports

How did opening day treat Bryce Harper? Put it this way: the 20-year-old phenom is on pace to hit 324 home runs this season. Harper hit a pair of home runs — in his first two at-bats of the season — and accounted for the only two RBIs of the game in the Washington Nationals’ 2-0 win over the Miami Marlins on Monday afternoon.

To make matters more exciting, a Jayson Werth look-a-like caught Harper’s first home run. As you can see from the photo above that DC Sports Bog passed along, the lucky fan was in full uniform and rocking the classic Werth beard and a pair of sunglasses. The MLB season may be only a day old, but we’ve already received a fantastic edition to our growing list of look-a-like fans.

As for the game itself, Nationals fans have to be thrilled with the way things played out. There is still a very, very long way to go, but Harper’s two home runs and Stephen Strasburg’s dominating seven innings of three-hit, no-run ball serve as a reminder that the franchise’s plan is coming to fruition. Assuming they can remain healthy, the Nats should be one of the most exciting teams in baseball all season long.

Photo via @jtannenwald

Bryce Harper appears poised for a breakout season with the Washington Nationals in 2013, but he wants more than that. Becoming the face of one of the best young teams in baseball would be nice, but Harper wants to become the Tom Brady of the MLB.

During an interview with the Washington Times on Sunday, Harper expressed a desire to be featured on magazine covers and be seen as more than just a baseball player.

“I don’t want everybody to just see the baseball side of me,” Harper said. “I want everybody to see the other side of me, too — that I can be on a magazine with jeans and a T-shirt on and my hair done and things like that. I don’t want just me in my baseball hat all the time just the boring, old, ‘Look it’s Bryce Harper with eye black on again.’ I like people seeing the other side.”

I’ll be the first to admit I did a complete 180-degree turn on Harper throughout the course of last season. However, that sounds more like the guy I used to hate that gels up his hair and blows kisses at opposing pitchers. There’s no questioning Harper’s dedication to the game and his work ethic, but you can’t expect to tell people you want to be on a magazine cover with your hair done without catching some grief.

Having said that, comments like these show how comfortable Harper is in his own skin. Without that confidence, he probably wouldn’t be such a promising young player. Don’t forget, this is the same guy who said he wants to have as much fun off the field as Joe Namath had in his day.

Fist pound to Hardball Talk

Washington Nations center fielder Bryce Harper and Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout are the future of Major League Baseball. Harper is only 20 years old and Trout is just 21, but they are already two of the game’s biggest superstars after their breakout seasons in 2012.

Dan Haren, who pitched for the Angels last season and is now with the Nats, has had an opportunity to spend time with both young phenoms.

“They’re different players, definitely,” Haren told the Washington Post earlier this week. “I really enjoyed my time with Mike. We got along really well. They’re very different, and they’re very similar. They’re both – sometimes, if you look from an opposing team’s standpoint, you don’t like Bryce or you don’t like Trout. And then you get on their team and it’s the opposite. You kind of see how they are and you like them.

“They both are on the borderline of confident and arrogant, you know? But I think that’s what takes them to the next level. They think that they’re better than everybody else. That’s probably a good way to think. Skills-wise, they have different skill sets. Bryce might have more power. Trout has more speed. I don’t think they’ve even reached their potentials.”

Conveniently enough, both players appeared in 139 games last season. Trout certainly has more speed, as evidenced by his 49 stolen bases compared to Harper’s 18. It would also stand to reason that Trout has more power and is a better overall hitter. Trout hit 30 homers and drove in 83 runs to go along with a .326 batting average. He nearly won the AL MVP. Harper belted 22 homers and drove 59 runs with an average of only .270.

Based on last season alone, it’s easier to make the case that Trout is a better player. Let us also not forget the insane plays like this and this that he made in the field. However, it would be ridiculous to jump to conclusions like that after one season in the majors when neither player has even hit age 22. Harper may have the hotter girlfriend, but Trout put up better numbers in 2012. Are they similar? Yes. But at the moment Trout gets the nod. Something tells me they’ll be neck and neck for a long, long time.

What’s the point of making millions of dollars a year if Chipotle Mexican Grill is going to give you free burritos anyway? What do you spend your money on? Cars? Personally, I’d be all set with the free burrito card. Give me a few hundred bucks per week after that to pay my bills and I’m all set.

As you can see, Bryce Harper was stoked on Tuesday when Chipotle gave him a personalized card that allows him to get free burritos for the rest of his life. Since he’s only 20 years old, that could potentially be a lot of burritos.

“Thanks chipotle for my free burritos for life card!” Harper wrote on Twitter with the photo you see above. “The best thing ever! I really appreciate it!”

From Chipotle’s standpoint, having Harper post a picture of his free burrito card on Twitter for his 175,000 followers to see makes it more than pay for itself. Harper already has his own beer and a trademarked product from Under Armour. This was just Chipotle’s way of getting in on the action.

A lot will be expected of Bryce Harper as he enters his second full season with the Washington Nationals. To help prepare for the upcoming year, Harper reportedly put on about 20 pounds over the winter. He belted 22 home runs in 139 games last season, but a rigorous workout regimen could have that number on the rise in 2013.

“I take a lot of pride in my workouts,” the 20-year-old told James Wagner of the Washington Post. “I work as hard as I can to get ready for the season.”

How did he do it? Harper, who said the World Series is the No. 1 thing on his mind entering this season, began lifting again in the middle of November. He set his alarm for 4:50 a.m. four mornings a week during the winter and was at Soder’s training facility in Las Vegas by 5:30. There, he would go through intense workouts that lasted between 90 minutes and two hours, which he said helped him to clear his mind.

As for eating, Harper is still a 20-year-old kid. He acknowledged that he will probably lose 10 pounds by the time spring training is over, and said he hasn’t gotten to the point in his career where he needs to be on a strict diet.

“I just eat as much as I can,” he explained. “I don’t really care. I don’t really have a diet. I’m still going to eat Fruity Pebbles and Captain Crunch and all these cereals at 12 o’clock at night. I don’t really care.”

I highly doubt he eats as much as this Seattle Mariners prospect, but it’s certainly nice to be young. Harper’s metabolism is still fresh and he plays baseball for a living, which means counting calories is hardly a necessity at his age. Whether or not his offseason bulkage contributes to more extra-base hits remains to be seen. With what we know about Harper’s work ethic, you’d be silly to bet against him.

Photo credit: Tom Szczerbowski-US PRESSWIRE

Whether you love him or hate him, most of us can agree that Bryce Harper is a pretty weird dude. Between telling little kids to be as sexy as they can and dressing up like a clown for Halloween, the 20-year-old has done some pretty bizarre things since he burst onto the MLB scene last year. But nothing is quite as strange as he pregame ritual.

Harper went on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Tuesday night and discussed some of his superstitions. Kimmel asked him about sleeping with his baseball bat when he was younger, and Bryce said he has stopped doing that but adopted other habits — like showering more than a handful of times before games.

“When I was growing up I was really superstitious,” Harper told Kimmel. “I still am. I get to the field at around 12 o’clock for a 7:05 game and it starts from there. I swear I shower seven times when I’m at the field, and I don’t even need to. It’s bad.

“As long as I’m on a streak or we’re doing good or my team’s winning, I’m gonna keep doing the same thing. Wearing the same undershirt, I eat Eggo waffles — it has to be Eggo — right before the game. It’s really weird.”

Eating the same things and wearing the same things during winning streaks is fairly common, but seven showers between noon and 7 p.m.? I know MLB teams make plenty of money, but how about conserving a little water? Natural resources, bro.

Bryce Harper is as serious as it gets on the field, but he proved he can have some fun off of it.

The Nationals phenom shared a picture over Twitter on Wednesday of what we believe is himself dressed as a clown for Halloween. The costume was a takeoff on the hilarious response Harper gave a Toronto reporter in June that went viral. “That’s a clown question, bro” soon became a beer and then a trademarked product by Under Armour. Now it’s a Halloween costume.

So which one looked better: this, or the last costume Harper wore?