KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Bryce Harper remembered back to Oct. 27, when just 414 fans were at Scottsdale Stadium to watch his Scorpions play the Mesa Solar Sox in the Arizona Fall League.
Down 7-5, Bryce Harper vowed to teammate Brandon Crawford to hit a game-winning home run.
“I’ll drop a bomb and walk off the field, tell them we own this place,” Harper said. “I promise you I’m going to hit a jack right here. I swear on everything.”
“Yeah, OK,” Mike Trout told him in disbelief.
Trout led off with a single, Scottsdale got another hit with one out and Harper followed with a home run to right-centre off Jeff Inman.
“Everybody ran inside the clubhouse,” Harper said. “It was a great moment.”
Still tied together, baseball’s youthful dynamic duo will be watched by millions on Tuesday night as the All-Star game returns to Kansas City and beautiful Kauffman Stadium for the first time since 1973.
Just 19, Harper is the youngest position player in All-Star history and a key part of the Washington Nationals’ emergence as a first-place team. Trout, a year older, is leading the American League in hitting and helping the Los Angeles Angels turn around their season after a sloppy start.
Coincidentally, both came up to the majors leagues on April 28, Harper for his debut and Trout for his return following a pair of stints last year. They are among a record five rookie All-Stars, joined by Texas pitcher Yu Darvish, Oakland closer Ryan Cook and Arizona pitcher Wade Miley.
In a room full of baseball’s best, even the veterans are taking notice of Harper and Trout.
“Speed. Power. Excitement. Youth. Energy,” Yankees centre fielder Curtis Granderson said. “If they are able to stay healthy, they can completely transform the game as they get, five, 10, 15 years of big league time.”
For now, both will start Tuesday night’s game on the bench. With the result determining home-field advantage in the World Series for the 10th straight year, the AL manager Ron Washington will start reigning MVP and Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander. The NL’s Tony La Russa, the first inactive All-Star manager since the AL’s Bob Lemon in 1979, chose San Francisco’s Matt Cain — coming off a perfect game last month.
Trout was on a flight from Salt Lake City to Cleveland when he saw on Twitter that Harper was being called up the same day. Trout hadn’t let many people know he was joining the big league team.
“Knowing he was getting called up that same day was pretty funny,” Trout said.
A son of former Minnesota minor league infielder Jeff Trout, Mike was taken by the Angels with the 25th pick on the first round of the 2009 amateur draft. Idolizing Derek Jeter, he played shortstop at Millville Senior High in New Jersey until he was moved to the outfield in his senior year. Harper had the greater renown, on the cover of Sports Illustrated when he was just 16 with the headline “CHOSEN ONE.”