Bryce Harper Likes the Boos

Boos don't give Bryce Harper the blues.

"It's just one team's fans hating on the other team," Harper said, using the teen vernacular of the day. "I hear the cheers when I'm at home. I like it, I really do but sometimes it gets me going a little bit too much with the adrenaline and what not. I try too hard to live up to it.  I like being booed on the road."

Harper is just 19 and won't be 20 until October.  At 17 he was the number one player selected in the 2010 draft.  He has reached base in 10 of his 11 games since being recalled.

He keeps to himself and doesn't ask the more seasoned players for advice but welcomes it when they are inclined to offer it.

"We have a really good mix of veteran guys and young guys.  It's a great clubhouse it's fun.  It's lively.  It's a great place to be," Harper said.

Harper has been playing the game his whole life and is right where he wants to be.

"I try to play the game, I've been playing my whole life and not worry about what's going on around me," Harper said.  "It's a lot of fun being up here."

Veteran manager Davey Johnson believes he is ready and really likes having a left handed bat in his right handed dominant lineup.

"I think his reception has been great.  He's stayed aggressive.  He doesn't get cheated at the plate.  He will crash into the walls in the outfield and do anything he can to make a play," Johnson said.

"I've been booed every time a pitcher goes bad and I had to take him out of a ballgame.  When you're involved in the game you really don't hear the boos"

Harper does his home work and studies tapes like everyone else.

"I don't even think of him being 19.  I think of him as a heck of a ballplayer," Johnson said.

Johnson managed the New York Mets when Dwight Gooden broke in at the age of 19 in 1984.  Gooden won 17 games that season for the Mets.

"Gooden had poise, like Harper does," Johnson said.