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The Last Natural: Bryce Harper's Big Gamble in Sin City and the Greatest Amateur Season Ever
Before Bryce Harper was the top pick in the Major League Baseball draft, before he signed the sport’s biggest contract ever for a first-year pro, he gambled his future on one make-or-break season.
The Las Vegas High School sophomore already had dominated the 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 phenom got his GED and enrolled at the College of Southern Nevada, where he could face pro prospects in a challenging wooden-bat league that prohibited the hitter-friendly aluminum bats used throughout college ball. Harper shattered the school’s home run record with 31 (the previous mark was 12) and compiled a startling 1.513 OPS while leading his team to the Junior College World Series. For his heroics, the 17-year-old became the only position player from a junior college to win the Golden Spikes Award, given to the nation’s best amateur baseball player. Las Vegas sportswriter Rob Miech was “embedded” with the Southern Nevada Coyotes team and brings us along for the ride—into the dugout and locker room and on team buses and in motel rooms, from the scorched fields to the snow-capped horizons of the Scenic West Athletic Conference—to deliver a warts-and-all account of a boy among men playing like a man among boys. Amid the media circus that descended upon team and town, we read fascinating personal stories including the dynamics between veteran coach Tim Chambers and Harper’s protective father, the camaraderie with—and jealousies of—other players, the fans and autograph seekers (and girls) who all want a piece of the young star, and how Harper is suspended from the World Series after protesting an umpire’s call, and the role his faith plays in his life. The Last Natural shows us a season in the life of baseball’s top rising star, culminating in a dramatic conclusion when Harper is drafted #1 by the Washington Nationals and, after tense negotiations that go up until just seconds before the midnight deadline, signs a $9.9 million contract. Even more than this, Miech’s book is the story of a team and its community, the hopes and aspirations of its players and coaches, and the spirit of pure baseball that lies at the heart of the American dream.
The Las Vegas High School sophomore already had dominated the 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 phenom got his GED and enrolled at the College of Southern Nevada, where he could face pro prospects in a challenging wooden-bat league that prohibited the hitter-friendly aluminum bats used throughout college ball. Harper shattered the school’s home run record with 31 (the previous mark was 12) and compiled a startling 1.513 OPS while leading his team to the Junior College World Series. For his heroics, the 17-year-old became the only position player from a junior college to win the Golden Spikes Award, given to the nation’s best amateur baseball player. Las Vegas sportswriter Rob Miech was “embedded” with the Southern Nevada Coyotes team and brings us along for the ride—into the dugout and locker room and on team buses and in motel rooms, from the scorched fields to the snow-capped horizons of the Scenic West Athletic Conference—to deliver a warts-and-all account of a boy among men playing like a man among boys. Amid the media circus that descended upon team and town, we read fascinating personal stories including the dynamics between veteran coach Tim Chambers and Harper’s protective father, the camaraderie with—and jealousies of—other players, the fans and autograph seekers (and girls) who all want a piece of the young star, and how Harper is suspended from the World Series after protesting an umpire’s call, and the role his faith plays in his life. The Last Natural shows us a season in the life of baseball’s top rising star, culminating in a dramatic conclusion when Harper is drafted #1 by the Washington Nationals and, after tense negotiations that go up until just seconds before the midnight deadline, signs a $9.9 million contract. Even more than this, Miech’s book is the story of a team and its community, the hopes and aspirations of its players and coaches, and the spirit of pure baseball that lies at the heart of the American dream.
- GenresBaseballSportsNonfiction
368 pages, Hardcover
First published May 22, 2012
8 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 11, 2012
As a National fan, I have waited for a book on Bryce Harper which has
Bryce warts and all and Rob Miech has done it, from broken bats to Harper signing autographs for his fan after games. This book gives a inside look at Junior College baseball,the travel and the bad weather.
If Dad's a baseball fan this is a good Father's day gift.Thanks to Goodread for a chance to win this book.
Bryce warts and all and Rob Miech has done it, from broken bats to Harper signing autographs for his fan after games. This book gives a inside look at Junior College baseball,the travel and the bad weather.
If Dad's a baseball fan this is a good Father's day gift.Thanks to Goodread for a chance to win this book.
January 28, 2019
I took a somewhat non-traditional route in reading this book. My son is eleven and is a baseball fanatic, and he happened to be born in the Washington, DC area. Thus, just about the time he started to really pay attention to baseball, Bryce Harper was breaking in to the Major Leagues with the Washington Nationals, and he had a home town phenom to cheer for.
Harper has been her baseball hero ever since. My son plays travel baseball, so there's a lot of driving to games, so to make the ride more interesting, I decided to get this as an audiobook and listen to it in the car with him while we were going to and from games. While I did listen to the book, I'll forego rating the performance and just stick to the content of the book itself.
Look, it boils down to this: if you are a baseball nut and you find Harper a fascinating subject, this is a fun book to waste some time on. If not, it is certainly not going to hold your interest very well.
I'll say this for Miech, he spun off being an embedded, friendly clubhouse rat into a gold mine by following Harper and his team around for a year. As a result, he does actually have some fairly interesting and noteworthy stories to tell, particularly about the Harper family itself, and their decisions about Bryce's baseball future. I did find it genuinely interesting to learn about the internal debate regarding junior college, the draft, and his future stock. That stuff was great.
The "Greatest Amateur Season Ever" stuff, on the other hand, was relatively mundane. Not because Harper didn't have an amazing, frankly historic and amazing to consider year. He did. He absolutely did. But rather, it was mundane because it felt like a somewhat dispassionate collection of game blurbs. This player or that would get an introduction, followed by a recitation of statistics in previous seasons, followed by an account of a game or two. Rinse, wash, repeat.
There were some compelling characters and interesting teammates. There were some interesting incidents. There was some good stuff in here. But I always felt like it was overwhelmed by the monotony of the facts of a general baseball season. This catcher getting more playing time. That player... well... playing.
Harper's antics were handled well. He came off as both prodigious and immature, which is not all that surprising for a teenage phenom. I particularly enjoyed reading about how he handled not being good in the beginning, and then how he handled things when the hits started to fall.
Overall, for a baseball junkie like me, it was great, enjoyable and fun. I think in the grand scheme of things, though, a relatively pedestrian baseball book.
Harper has been her baseball hero ever since. My son plays travel baseball, so there's a lot of driving to games, so to make the ride more interesting, I decided to get this as an audiobook and listen to it in the car with him while we were going to and from games. While I did listen to the book, I'll forego rating the performance and just stick to the content of the book itself.
Look, it boils down to this: if you are a baseball nut and you find Harper a fascinating subject, this is a fun book to waste some time on. If not, it is certainly not going to hold your interest very well.
I'll say this for Miech, he spun off being an embedded, friendly clubhouse rat into a gold mine by following Harper and his team around for a year. As a result, he does actually have some fairly interesting and noteworthy stories to tell, particularly about the Harper family itself, and their decisions about Bryce's baseball future. I did find it genuinely interesting to learn about the internal debate regarding junior college, the draft, and his future stock. That stuff was great.
The "Greatest Amateur Season Ever" stuff, on the other hand, was relatively mundane. Not because Harper didn't have an amazing, frankly historic and amazing to consider year. He did. He absolutely did. But rather, it was mundane because it felt like a somewhat dispassionate collection of game blurbs. This player or that would get an introduction, followed by a recitation of statistics in previous seasons, followed by an account of a game or two. Rinse, wash, repeat.
There were some compelling characters and interesting teammates. There were some interesting incidents. There was some good stuff in here. But I always felt like it was overwhelmed by the monotony of the facts of a general baseball season. This catcher getting more playing time. That player... well... playing.
Harper's antics were handled well. He came off as both prodigious and immature, which is not all that surprising for a teenage phenom. I particularly enjoyed reading about how he handled not being good in the beginning, and then how he handled things when the hits started to fall.
Overall, for a baseball junkie like me, it was great, enjoyable and fun. I think in the grand scheme of things, though, a relatively pedestrian baseball book.
November 22, 2013
I was looking forward to reading this book, but once I started it took an awful long time to get through it.
The subject is promising, the kind of subject great sports movies are made out of. But the book feels haphazard - there is a whole lot of great information hidden amongst the pages, but it's hard to extract with the extra fluff, such as backstories of coaches, other players and family members, that is not imperative to tell the story, IMHO. And it was very disruptive for the author to jump time periods so often, going forward then backwards then back to the middle within a single page, instead of just settling in to tell the story. It's not the content or the subject that I had a problem with, just the way it was all put together. I think this could have been much easier to read with a little better, or different, organization.
I received this book for free through the Goodreads First Reads program.
The subject is promising, the kind of subject great sports movies are made out of. But the book feels haphazard - there is a whole lot of great information hidden amongst the pages, but it's hard to extract with the extra fluff, such as backstories of coaches, other players and family members, that is not imperative to tell the story, IMHO. And it was very disruptive for the author to jump time periods so often, going forward then backwards then back to the middle within a single page, instead of just settling in to tell the story. It's not the content or the subject that I had a problem with, just the way it was all put together. I think this could have been much easier to read with a little better, or different, organization.
I received this book for free through the Goodreads First Reads program.
August 24, 2012
I'll be honest, I didn't even finish this one, which usually means I won't review it, but this one needed to be reviewed. Sports books are easily squandered opportunities, subject matter that is interesting but fails to be written about well.
The content here, the story, was very interesting. I was so excited to see a book about Bryce Harper. But Miech just cannot find a way to tell the story so that it keeps your interest and hits on the most important parts. He takes the story off course to tell you that all these Nevada baseball families know each other in the midst of telling you the story of a single game. Maybe the blame should fall partly on the editor who should have seen this structure falling apart and suggested some cuts and a different approach perhaps.
Overall very disappointing.
The content here, the story, was very interesting. I was so excited to see a book about Bryce Harper. But Miech just cannot find a way to tell the story so that it keeps your interest and hits on the most important parts. He takes the story off course to tell you that all these Nevada baseball families know each other in the midst of telling you the story of a single game. Maybe the blame should fall partly on the editor who should have seen this structure falling apart and suggested some cuts and a different approach perhaps.
Overall very disappointing.
June 16, 2013
I only made it 100 or so pages in before I just got tired of it. Maybe non-fiction isn't really my thing, but the pace crawled and the author seems to take every chance to mention any person who made the slightest contribution to Bryce's path to the majors. Too many people bouncing in and out, poor story telling and structure that was just to hard to follow. I didn't like it and probably won't pick it up again. Which is unfortunate because I bet this is a great story. Just really, really poorly written.
December 11, 2015
Bryce Harper has worn the eye black since Little League and he apparently hits better when wearing it.
He is his own harshest critic, striving for perfection in a sport that rewards thirty percent success in hitting.
And he has been feuding with umpires and running into outfield walls and fences since college.
Rob Miech spent Harper's single college season in the dugout, recording the experience and capturing both bad and good.
The result is a good read -- and a better understanding of the player Harper is and what makes him act the way he does.
He is his own harshest critic, striving for perfection in a sport that rewards thirty percent success in hitting.
And he has been feuding with umpires and running into outfield walls and fences since college.
Rob Miech spent Harper's single college season in the dugout, recording the experience and capturing both bad and good.
The result is a good read -- and a better understanding of the player Harper is and what makes him act the way he does.
September 28, 2018
The novel The Last Natural by Rob Miech contains content of the pre-draft life of Bryce Harper. The novel explains the struggles Bryce had to go through with with fame and criticism. The book goes through tough parts where Miech struggles to hold the readers attention. But the novel gives the reader a great idea of the life Harper lived before he was draft by the Washington Nationals, all the struggles he went through with the bigger level and the criticism he faced for obtaining an early GED. It's a great novel for better backround knowledge of the young phenom, Bryce Harper.
December 21, 2013
It was cool to read about Bryce Harper before he became a big leaguer and while he was still more of a mysterious figure. I also enjoyed reading about his teammates and the coaches. The author had great access - he quoted a number of texts verbatim.
The downside to this book is that it really needed a good editor - the structure of the book was not strong, and it was disorganized which often makes it confusing. A better editor would have really improved this book.
The downside to this book is that it really needed a good editor - the structure of the book was not strong, and it was disorganized which often makes it confusing. A better editor would have really improved this book.
August 29, 2012
Not the best-written sports biography, but it still provides a captivating look at the journey of teenage phenom Bryce Harper from high school to the minor leagues. It was certainly worth reading, even if it occasionally went off-topic for a few pages. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in getting a closer look at the complex anomaly that is Bryce Harper.
November 26, 2012
Somewhat tedious recounting of Harper's one year in Junior College at age 17. Hit about .450 with 31 hrs. including some monster shots in a wooden bat league. Best in the land. Ejected and suspended for the last 2 games of World Series, his team lost.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 11, 2012
Thanks for the free book GoodReads!
Overall not a bad book. A bit jumpy and off subject at times, but not unexpected with it being a sports book.
Overall not a bad book. A bit jumpy and off subject at times, but not unexpected with it being a sports book.
December 6, 2016
Good subject, horrible writing.
October 28, 2023
Solid read and definitely recommend for Bryce Harper fans. You’ll get a great feel for the environment and the people that molded a lot of what you’ve seen from the guy. I thought about 60 pages in total could’ve been deleted with unnecessary details as I was mainly interested in Bryce nuggets, but other readers might enjoy those extra story telling details more.
July 24, 2022
ball player decides to get his GED then attend a local junior college to play baseball and skip the cape cod league to get himself into draft position. this follows his many exploits and experiences as the writer was able to be imbedded into the journey, insightful, faith, swearing, B/W images.
March 12, 2024
For baseball lifers and Las Vegans (realizing that ain’t a large list, but it ain’t a short one either), a beautiful inside tale of the moments when our community produced a game who may well rival our other one (Greg Maddux) in the end.
January 6, 2015
Good content, poor execution - what a shame. (Oh, my kingdom for an EDITOR!!!! The title is a warning.... Did the publisher pay on a per word basis????) This book had a lot of potential, but it simply is not realized. After being granted extraordinary access to a truly unique subject - baseball phenom Bryce Harper's junior college baseball season - Miech, well, what else can I say, drops the ball. THIS BOOK COULD HAVE BEEN GREAT -- the kid, the family, the game, the team-mates, the season, the fans, the media, THE PRESSURE - all of it ultimately falls flat.... Let me try again: the Bryce Harper story is truly amazing - the kid's talent is larger than life, and his story is remarkable.... But I should have stopped reading before the end of the first chapter, which consistently failed to follow a logical, let alone temporal, path. I can't remember the last time I read a book where I so frequently had to re-read paragraphs and passages because - without warning - the author changed topics, perspectives, time frames, etc. (Lengthy reading sessions resulted in head-aches... Alas.) Finally, and there's no point in kicking a dead horse here, I can only conclude that Miech isn't really a baseball guy. Baseball, the national pastime, is all about stories. (Field of Dreams? Shoeless Joe? Bull Durham?) Why did George Will's Men at Work, the most unlikely of baseball books, succeed? Because Will can tell a story. Miech can't. What a shame.
January 28, 2013
Rob Miech wrote“ A compelling, behind-the-scenes account of the making of a prodigy”(George Dohrmann). Before Bryce Harper was the number one overall pick in the 2010 Major League baseball draft, he made one of the biggest decisions of his young life. Harper decided to earn his GED after his sophomore year in High School so he could be drafted as a junior in high school. Harper appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, which dubbed him as the “most exciting prodigy since Lebron James.” During Harper’s historic season, he shattered the school home run record hitting 31(formerly 12) and hit an astounding .443 as he led the Coyotes to the junior college world series.
Rob Miech does an amazing job documenting Bryce Harper for the most important year of his life, teaching me along the way to become a baseball player. Eventually Harper won the Golden Spikes award, which is given to the best amateur baseball player in the country. Then, as expected, Harper signed the largest contract ever for an amateur baseball player after being the first overall pick of the MLB draft. After reading this book, I really know what it feels like to be a superstar!
October 4, 2012
In the Last Natural Rob Meich follows the young baseball phenom Bryce Harper. Bryce is thought to be the most hyped up high school sports player since Lebron James. Meich specifically follows Bryce they year he plays junior college baseball, instead of going to high school for his junior year. Bryce made this decision, so he could play in the MLB one year earlier. There was much controversy following the 16 year old Sports Illustrated cover boy after he decided to leave high school after his sophomore year. Bryce's anger when it comes to failure is closely followed, but his success is also closely covered. Bryce had what is thought to be the junior college baseball season ever.
May 25, 2012
Overall, a worthwhile read. My full review, (perhaps my longest ever, at almost 3000 words, because Mormon readers need to know some basics about Bryce Harper) can be found at:
http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2012/05/an-un-natural-natural/
http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2012/05/an-un-natural-natural/
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews