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Harper more than stop-gap answer

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Nationals Report

By TODD JACOBSON

Date published: 9/21/2006

By TODD JACOBSON

WASHINGTON--Brandon Harper was about to enroll in classes at Metro State University in Denver. He even had his classes all picked out.

He had given professional baseball nine years of his life, and in January, he was planning to resume his management degree and give the sport up for good.

That was before the Nationals called in December, offering the 30-year-old catcher a minor league deal.

One more chance, he thought.

"The last couple years I really thought I was going to be done and I told myself at the beginning of this year if I didn't make it to the big leagues then I was done," said Harper, who was a fourth-round pick of the Marlins in 1997.

"It was tough for me to shut it down the last couple years because in the back of my mind I really knew I could play here and that's what kept me going and it finally paid off."

Harper earned his shot in the big leagues in August after spending four months with Triple-A New Orleans, and a solid month in the big leagues may have earned him much more.

Harper is hitting .345 with two homers and five RBIs in 12 games, and he is expected to get a shot next spring to be the Nationals' backup catcher. Manager Frank Robinson said he could be the answer to a season-long issue.

"It's almost too good to be true because he's kind of fallen into our laps a little bit by accident this year," Robinson said. "It's a pleasant situation with him and we're just in a kind of a wait-and-see type thing. Going into the winter it won't be at least a panic to find a backup guy because you feel like he's capable of doing the job."

Before Harper arrived in Washington, Washington used Matt LeCroy, Robert Fick and Wiki Gonzalez as backups to Brian Schneider.

"He's done a solid job calling the games, shown he's got a good arm," general manager Jim Bowden said. "He's hitting over .300. He's done a very good job. He's been studying and working. He has impressed us."

Date published: 9/21/2006