Bryce Harper shall not want for baseball gloves for the next five years

(Bryce Harper takes flight. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images.)

So Bryce Harper has apparently agreed to a deal with Akadema, a NJ-based sports equipment company, to provide him with baseball gloves for the next five years. Or so says this press release from Akadema:

"Bryce Harper joins Akadema’s stable of young talent including Cameron Maybin, Derek Holland, and Vin Mazzaro.  Harper’s game-day glove of choice is the Akadema ACM 39.  Akadema Vice President, Kris Totten remarked, “We’re ecstatic to have Bryce representing the brand.  He’s obviously a great talent and has the ability to do things in this game that only a handful of players can match.”  After excelling in the Arizona Fall League, there is great anticipation of Harper breaking camp next spring with the Nationals major league club.
(via Akadema Press Release, 12/09/2010)

What's that? Wait. Did that say there is "great anticipation of Harper breaking camp next spring with the Nationals major league club." Certainly that's a reference to spring 2012, right?

This much is clear: Bryce Harper will report to major league camp for spring training in February. Jim Riggleman talked about Harper when he met with the media on Tuesday at the Winter Meetings. Let's briefly copy and paste from the Washington Post's Adam Kilgore:

First overall pick Bryce Harper will begin spring training in major league camp, a starting point that owes to his spot on the Nationals' 40-man roster. "He'll get a lot of attention, I'm sure, just as Stephen Strasburg did last year," Riggleman said. "But he'll be in big league camp and get some at-bats. If the at-bats look like they are starting to get too infrequent, we will get him down to minor league camp where he's seeing pitching every day."
(via Nationals Journal, 12/06/2010)

Previously, we took an idiotic wild guess of June 17th, 2011, as the night of Bryce Harper's Major League debut. Is it too late to retract that and go with a September 2012 callup?

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Comments

[Michael L.G.]

You do an amazing job rivaling and usually beating Dan Steinberg at the DC Sports Bog with cool posts!

You know which other stud of the Nationals used to be an Akadema glove player? Tim Redding

[Section 3, My Sofa]

You know what? Don't back down. If you're wrong, well, you're already wrong, so changing now doesn't help much. But if you are right, you will be King and we'll never hear the end of it.

[Section 3, My Sofa]

Also, it doesn't look like he's coming down with that ball in the photo. Did he catch that?

[The Nationals Enquirer]

@Michael Appreciate the compliment, but comparing us to the Bog is like comparing Tim Redding to Cliff Lee. Bunch of hacks over here.

[The Nationals Enquirer]

@Section3MySofa: Well, if June 17 ends up being right, we'll retract today's Sept. 2012 prediction and revert back to the previous version, thus being right and claiming bragging rights in NatsTown for life.

Also: we didn't see the play, but there's no way Harper missed it. He's Baseball Jesus 2.0, you know?