CHICAGO -- The wind was howling out to left field Monday morning when Bryce Harper arrived at Wrigley Field with the Washington Nationals.
Had he checked out the flags?
"I don't need wind," Harper replied. "I'm good."
Yes, Harper is good, perhaps as good as anyone in baseball right now at 22. The fact that he knows this rubs some people the wrong way, just as Reggie Jackson ticked some folks off in the 1970s by declaring himself "the straw that stirs the drink."
But Harper doesn't care, and truth be told, baseball needs cocky guys like Harper just as much as they need low-volume superstars like Mike Trout.
Vanilla isn't for everyone.
Of course, the Cubs have their own version of Harper in Kris Bryant, 23, who grew up in Las Vegas and has known Harper since Bryant was 9. It reminds me of Truman Capote and Harper Lee, who grew up together in Monroeville, Ala., and wound up being famous authors.
"We grew up playing against each other, playing with each other, and now it's a bigger stage," Bryant said before the Nationals' 2-1 victory. "So that's obviously pretty cool to live out our dreams. It's something we always wanted to do."
Their first duel in the daylight was memorable for openers. Bryant started it with a first-inning home run to left, while Harper made a nice running catch of Anthony Rizzo's shot to right in the third.
"Harp banged himself pretty good going into the wall," Nationals Manager Matt Williams said. "It's not real forgiving there because it's brick behind it, but he made a nice play running full steam into the wall."
Harper's right arm hit the wall while bracing himself, but he shook it off and doubled the next inning.
The Harper vs. Bryant comparisons are natural since they are both young sluggers from Las Vegas with a chance at greatness. Harper said Bryant was known as "Silk" back in the day, while Bryant remembered Harper as being "so much bigger and so much stronger than everybody -- and better."
Bryant tends to be more vanilla and self-effacing than his Nationals counterpart. His humorous commercial for Red Bull includes people mocking the hype surrounding his arrival.
"We have very different personalities," Bryant said. "I think that's good for the game. It's good to have guys who wear their heart on their sleeves, and he's one of those guys, and it's awesome to see that. He plays so hard for his team, and I think that's very respectful. But he's very confident, and I think that's cool to see.
"You have to be confident, to believe you're the best on the field. I do that in a different way, and he does that, and it's pretty cool too."
How good can Harper be?
The Nationals slugger led the majors Monday in RBI (41), runs (39), walks (39), on-base percentage (.471) and slugging percentage (.728) and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.198). If he keeps his OPS at that level the rest of the season, it would be the highest since Barry Bonds' tainted 1.421 OPS in 2004.
As good as Bryant has been, the Cubs rookie still ranked 45th in OPS at .836 entering Monday's game.
He said he loves playing at Wrigley, Fenway Park and AT&T Park, although he was "kind of sad there's not going to be anyone in the right-field" bleachers this week to holler at him.
"It just feels like you're in a ballpark in your back yard playing the game," he said of Wrigley. "I enjoy it, but I don't think Wednesday night anybody's going to be here. They're all going to be at the Hawks game."
Smart kid.
Sports on 05/27/2015