At churches, grocery stores, school events, ballfields or wherever then-Angels area scout Jeff Scholzen would come across travel baseball parents in his hometown of St. George, Utah, he would hear the name.

“Hey,” they’d say, “do you know Bryce Harper ?"

The parents would then explain how impressive Harper had been when playing against their kids in various tournaments, imploring Scholzen to give the young man from Las Vegas a look.

Only problem: Harper was 10 years old.

“I don’t scout 10 year-olds,” Scholzen would tell them. “If someone wants to give me an eight-year contract until he’s a senior in high school, I’ll start watching him.”

This went on for a while.

Finally, when Harper was 12 years old, Scholzen went to watch him in a tournament in the St. George area, “just to get p

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