by Jon Pessah
What’s the difference between Bryce Harper and Eric Bledsoe?
Money. Lots of money.
Harper is the 17-year-old phenom taken first in last night’s baseball draft. A latter day Mickey Mantle, Harper skipped the last two years of high school, was home schooled, got his GED and spent the past year at a junior college where 75% of the students are part-timers. When Bud Selig called is name first last night, there was no national outcry that this teenage white athlete’s life would be ruined because he didn’t have a college education. The only question being asked is if agent Scott Boras would get Harper a bigger bonus than the $15.1 million he got for Steve Strasberg last year.
Bledsoe is the 19-year-old point guard who declared for the draft after playing one year at Kentucky, now under investigation for Bledsoe’s suspect high school transcript. Bledsoe, a black kid from Alabama, bounced from one high school to another in hopes of meeting NCAA requirements to he could do what he does best: play basketball. Unlike Harper, he didn’t have the option of going straight to the pros.
The national media has been drooling over Harper for more than a year, eager to see how quickly the Sports Illustrated cover boy can reach the major leagues. Apparently, a college education is meaningless for a baseball player yet essential for a basketball player. Just ask ESPN talking heads like Dickie V or Digger Phelps or any of the predominantly white media who openly pine for the days when basketball players stayed in college a full four years.
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