No, really.

Here’s Nationals Director of Player Development Doug Harris, quoted in this week’s issue of Sports Illustrated, in which Tom Verducci profiles the up-and-coming phenom’s meteoric rise:

“This is really unfair and it’s totally different, but if I can make a comparison to one guy that has been scrutinized like this, it would be Jackie Robinson. And it’s unfair because it was a different standard. He was under a microscope in an era when we didn’t have Internet, didn’t have cellphones. Now, Jackie Robinson had his life threatened. I’m not comparing Bryce to that. But as far as nonstop scrutiny? Absolutely. Day to day.”

Harper’s minor league coach, Tony Tarasco, concurs.

“Jackie Robinson. You have to go back to Jackie Robinson to find anybody who goes through this much scrutiny. It wasn’t like this for [Stephen] Strasburg. Wasn’t like this for Alex Rodriguez.”

Oh, I see. I suppose that when the incredibly talented, 18-year-old white kid from Vegas was getting smoochy while rounding third, he wasn’t showing up the pitcher so much as just blowing the last remnants of racial segregation from the infield.