TORONTO – The spotlight’s always shined bright on Bryce Harper.

A once-in-a-generation talent who was blasting 500-foot home runs before he could legally drive, Harper’s lived the life of an anointed baseball prodigy and somehow managed to deliver on sky-high expectations.

Before he was selected first overall in the 2010 draft by the Washington Nationals, he was the “LeBron James of Baseball,” appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated at 16 years old.

No pressure, right?

“I mean, it’s a good thing and a bad thing,” Harper, now 30, told theScore last month. “You’re 16 years old and you look at an article and you’re on the cover of Sports Illustrated. It’s one of the coolest things ever. You dream about Sports Illustrated, Wheaties boxes, Topps cards at a young age.”

Bryce Harper Sports Illustrated cover when he was 16 years old, 2009 pic.twitter.com/5kmBa9uHE0

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Those high expectations are unfair no matter how talented a player is. Prospects often crumble under their weight.

Harper didn’t though, and he remains focused on what eludes him, and what he came closest to last October: a World Series title.

“There was a lot of hype about him,” Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. “Everybody realized that he was one of those future cornerstone players (who) don’t come around very often.”

For Harper – even at 16 – it was all about the bigger picture; it’s what allowed him to be great. He was naturally gifted, yes, but his desire to be the best wouldn’t allow him to fail.

“Just understanding that there was still so much to do. It was just another brick being laid, another step going forward. I just tried to understand that this wasn’t the finished product,” Harper said of how he managed expectations. “I needed to keep working. At 16 years old, you don’t want to just be the best 16-year-old in the world, right? You want to be able to further your career and go from there. The work never stopped.”

‘We had to grind’

To understand how Harper managed those lofty expectations, you have to know how he was raised.

Harper’s baseball journey began like so many others’, tagging along to his older brother’s games.

“Just watching (Bryan) play,” Harper said of how he got his start in baseball. “He was a few years older than me, so whatever he was doing, I was doing.”

Sports were a big part of life in the Harper house in Nevada. His dad, Ron, played multiple sports when he was young and passed on a love of competition to his children. Bryce was involved in “big-time (baseball) tournaments” when he was 10. He played competitive football until his freshman year in high school, but focused on baseball full time after breaking his wrist.

“That’s when I kind of got pretty serious,” Harper said. “I just kind of took that path.”

Harper grew up in a middle-class family. His mother worked as a paralegal while his father worked as an ironworker foreman, helping build much of the Las Vegas Strip.

“Treasure Island, Mirage, Aria, all your big hotels. You name it, he was on it,” Harper said of his dad. “He ran a lot of big jobs.”

Harper speaks about his parents with much pride; it’s clear how important they are to his life when you talk with him. He credits them for his work ethic. He was taught from a young age to work hard for what you want and believes having that instilled helped him not only reach the majors but also kept him grounded.

“They wanted to give us every single chance they could to get to where we are today,” Harper said. “That was just instilled into all of us, that we had to grind. No matter where you come from, or who you are, just understand it takes a lot of work to be where you are.

“If you’re gonna do this, you’re gonna do it the right way and we’re not gonna waste our time. You’re gonna do something with your whole heart into it.”

While Harper dreamed in his mid-teens of life as a pro baseball player, his immediate plans were to make sure the sport helped him pay for college. He knew he’d need financial assistance, and baseball was a way of securing it.

“I was definitely going to need a scholarship,” Harper said. “My brother was the same way, and my sister, too. So it’s kind of just, what can we do to be great at what we need to get our education going.”

Harper’s exploits between the lines made it clear he was going places in the sport. He completed his GED during his junior year of high school in 2009, which allowed him to be eligible for MLB’s 2010 draft. He played at the College of Southern Nevada with his brother for one season, where he dominated as a 17-year-old catcher. The Nats made him the No. 1 pick.

It was a pick that changed the trajectory of the franchise, and Harper’s life.

‘Like traveling with a rockstar’

Bob Carpenter’s been the TV voice of the Nationals for 18 seasons.

He remembers the lean early years after the team relocated from Montreal. Washington finished last in the NL East in five of its first six seasons. The Nats went 59-102 in 2008, helping them land Stephen Strasburg first overall. They finished 59-103 in 2009, ensuring themselves Harper.

“I saw the headlines and stuff when (Harper) was still in high school,” Carpenter recalls. “And I’m like, ‘Come on, this guy can’t be that good.’ After we drafted Strasburg in 2009, and then we drafted Bryce … to have two guys like that come along back-to-back, it’s crazy.”

Harper debuted at Dodger Stadium on April 28, 2012. With Strasburg on the mound, he went 1-for-3 with an RBI. He was greeted with loud boos during his first at-bat (a groundout back to the pitcher). A couple innings later, he roped a rocket double off Chad Billingsley for his first hit. The boos grew louder, the ball tossed into the dugout for authentication.

Bryce Harper was officially a major leaguer.