Harper Is a Big Catch for Twins : Baseball: After a long battle up major league ladder, he finds success in Minnesota.

Former San Pedro High standout Brian Harper has produced All-Star-caliber statistics for the Minnesota Twins in 1990.

But is Harper complaining or feeling slighted about not being voted into the starting lineup for Tuesday’s All-Star Game by the fans or being selected by American League Manager Tony La Russa as a reserve?

No way.

“I was just thrilled to be on the All-Star ballot, to be honest,” Harper said. “There were a lot of big-name catchers doing well this year. Lance Parrish (of the Angels) is doing great. I’m very surprised that Carlton Fisk didn’t make the team.”

Harper, a fourth-round draft pick of the Angels in 1977, toiled for 13 seasons before reaching All-Star status.

Before that, he had been a part of six major league teams. He had been released by three of them and was traded by two others.

He’s made the most of his opportunity with the Twins, taking a .311 batting average, 10th in the American League, into Friday’s action. His current average is higher than perennial AL hit leader Wade Boggs (.306) of the Boston Red Sox and a point less than his better-known teammate, Kirby Puckett. Boggs and Puckett were named to the AL All-Star roster.

Harper batted .325 in 1989, and was given the starter’s job on a permanent basis in August.

It has been a “dream come true” for Harper, who with his wife, Chris, has lived in more parts of the country than he probably cared to.

“For my wife and I, we have a strong relationship together,” Harper said. “So that really helps a lot. We also have a commitment to the Lord and believe that he is really in control of all the moves. When you believe that, then it’s a lot easier to go to and from a lot of these places.

“We’ve been together every week of our marriage. She’s been with me throughout the year, even when I’ve played winter ball. We’ve been married since 1980.”

They met at San Pedro High when Harper was 15. About two years later, after earning All-CIF honors, Harper signed a professional contract after being selected by the Angels in the June, 1977, free-agent draft. He was called by the Angels in September, 1979, at 19. Harper appeared in one game with two at-bats and no hits.

He put together some good seasons up to that point--batting averages of .323 at Idaho Falls, Ida., in ‘77, .293 at Quad Cities (Iowa) in ‘78, and .315 at El Paso in ’79. Full seasons at El Paso, where he hit .285 in ’80 and at triple-A Salt Lake City, where he hit .350 with 28 home runs and 122 runs batted in in ‘81, earned another promotion to the big club at the end of the ’81 season. In four games with the Angels he hit .273 with three hits in 11 at-bats.

The Angels knew they had a good hitter in Harper, but they weren’t as certain about his defensive abilities as a catcher. New Angel Manager Gene Mauch had a preference for veteran ballplayers, so California traded Harper to the Pittsburgh Pirates for veteran infielder Tim Foli in December, 1981.

“At that time the Angels were a good team and they were trying to get even better, so they were going for the veteran players,” he said.

Even after stops in Idaho Falls, Quad Cities, El Paso, Salt Lake City and Anaheim, the Harpers’ journey was just beginning.

Since the Pirates were willing to trade Foli for the young catcher, it should have meant a stable home for the Harpers in Pittsburgh. But that was not the case.

He spent most of the ’82 season with the Pirates’ top minor league team in Portland, Ore., where he hit .284 with 17 home runs and 73 RBIs. When brought up to the major leagues later that year, he appeared in 20 games and hit .276 in 29 at-bats with two home runs. His first major league homer was hit off San Diego left-hander Dave Dravecky.

But with Tony Pena already in the starting lineup, the Pirates were using Harper anywhere but as a catcher. He was a pinch-hitter and reserve outfielder and was on the roster for the remainder of ’82 and all of ’83 and ’84 seasons. But during those 2 1/2 half seasons, he had only 272 at-bats in 127 games with averages of .221 in ’83 and .259 in ’84.

“All through high school and the minor leagues, I caught, but when I got traded to the Pirates, they had quite a few catchers, so I consequently became an outfielder and utility player,” he said.

The pattern continued, but the scenery changed. He was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals with left-handed pitcher John Tudor for outfielder George Hendrick and minor league catcher Steve Barnard before the ’85 season. The Cardinals made it to the World Series that season and Harper had a pinch-hit RBI single off Kansas City Royal pitcher Charlie Leibrandt that broke a tie in Game Six of the series.

But after hitting .250 in 52 at-bats, he was released. He played briefly with the Detroit Tigers and its minor league affiliate at Nashville in 1986 and with San Jose of the California League at the outset of ’87 before his contract was purchased by the Oakland Athletics. For the remainder of the season, he played at Tacoma before he was promoted to the A’s at the end of the season.

Harper wasn’t certain what the future would bring.

“I thought that (a change of careers) might happen when I was in Tacoma,” Harper said. “I was struggling there. In fact I got benched there, and I had never been benched in the minors before. So I got to thinking that I was pretty much finished.

“I was talking to my wife and telling her that we might as well try to do something else. But she encouraged me not to quit, and then I really made some changes, during the next few days, in my priorities as far as what is more important. I realized that the Lord is more important and the family is more important.”

Harper’s self-analysis came in June of that year, and he became a productive player the remainder of that season.

“After I did that, I just started getting a hit every time up, just about, and finished the season really strong,” he said. “In July and August I hit over .400.

With his Tacoma average for the season at .310, he earned another promotion to the big leagues, playing briefly at the end of the season with the A’s.

But he was not protected by the A’s after the season and was free to negotiate with any team.

“I signed with the Twins because they said they’d let me catch,” he said. “That’s the biggest reason I didn’t sign with Oakland; they really didn’t consider me as a catcher. (The A’s) thought of me as an outfielder, DH, whatever.”

He started the ’88 season in the minors at Portland, where he had also played when the city’s team was affiliated with the Pirates. He hit .353 in 46 games and was called up to the Twins. He hit .295 for the Twins in ’88 and his success continued the following year and he became the starting catcher.

Minnesota (40-44) went into Friday’s action tied with the Angels for fifth place in the AL West. Harper had five home runs 36 RBIs and 32 runs scored.

Harper said playing catcher also helps his hitting.

“Catching does take its toll, but for me, catching helps my hitting,” he said. “When I was playing in the outfield or (serving as) designated hitter, I thought too much about hitting. When I start thinking too much, I end up pressing and doing things I shouldn’t do. But when I’m catching, I don’t think a lot about hitting. So in the long run, it helps me relax more when I’m hitting. When I catch, I don’t have to think about my last at-bat.”

The Twins’ attitude also appeals to Harper.

“Of the six major league teams I’ve been on, (Minnesota) by far has been the most relaxed,” Harper said. “When I say relaxed, I don’t mean lackadaisical, because its a very hard-working team, and plays as hard as any I’ve been on. But it’s relaxed as far as (Manager) Tom Kelly and the coaches are concerned.

“It’s not like that with all teams. Tom Kelly just says, ‘Hey, do the best you can. That’s all we ask.’ That’s helped me relax and feel more comfortable. On other teams, I felt that if I didn’t get two or three hits in a game, I might not play for two weeks. So there was more pressing on other teams I played with.”

Harper knows he’s a better player than at the start of his playing career. Maturity has made the difference.

“Defensively I wasn’t ready when I was called up to the Angels,” he said. “I was hitting real well in the minor leagues then, so I got rushed. I had a real good year in triple-A (1981) at the age of 20 or 21 hitting-wise, but defensively I wasn’t ready to catch in the big leagues. Not too many 21 year olds are. I think that way it hurt me.”

Perhaps family responsibilities along with the added years of experience have something to do with his maturity. The Harpers have a family to look after, with two sons, Brett, 9, and Derek, 6, an 11-year-old niece Aja, whom the Harpers are raising, and another child arriving soon.