Touch 'Em All: Nats' Harper to make his big-league debut

Washington prospect Bryce Harper will make his big-league debut Saturday in Los Angeles when the Nationals play the Dodgers to determine (at this admittedly early date) the best team in the National League.

Harper started the year with the triple-A Syracuse Chiefs where he's batting a puny .250 with a single home run in 20 games. But don't let the numbers fool you. The 19-year-old outfielder - the No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 draft - has been the most ballyhooed prospect since the Nats drafted pitcher Stephen Strasbug a year earlier.

Up to now, Harper's accomplishments in the minors include being known for his cocky attitude - using gobs of eye black, blowing a kiss at a pitcher after hitting a home run, and being named to the 2011 All-Star Futures Game.

Oh, and about the Nationals and Dodgers being the NL's best: The numbers don't lie. Going into Friday's game at Dodger Stadium, the Nats were 14-5 and the Dodgers were one game back at 13-6.

New York police arrested the Tigers' Delmon Young early Friday morning on a hate-crime harassment charge after police said the leftfielder got into a fight with some tourists after yelling anti-Semitic epithets at the group and at a panhandler.

Police said Young was standing outside of the Hilton New York about 2:30 a.m. when the trouble began. Police said four tourists staying at the hotel were approached by the panhandler wearing a yarmulke and a Star of David around his neck.

One of the men gave the panhandler $25, prompting Young to respond with an anti-Semitic slur. The men told Young to calm down, but he began to grapple with them, police. "He started pushing them around," officials told the New York Times.

Moose Skowron, a four-time all-star first baseman who helped the Yankees win four World Series titles in the 1950s and 1960s, died Friday at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Ill. He was 81. Skowron, who played for the Yankees from 1954 to 1962, won a fifth World Series with the Dodgers in the first season after he was dealt to Los Angeles.

- Staff and wire reports