FORT MYERS, Fla. -- In another life, if his name hadn't been called in the 37th round of the 2011 MLB Draft, [Ryne Harper](https://www.mlb.com/player/ryne-harper-607560) thinks he might have ended up as an accountant.\n\n\"I'm super glad that's not the case,\" Harper said. \"No offense to any accountants, but one of my buddies is an accountant, and it doesn't seem like it's for me.\"
Harper, who turns 30 on Wednesday, said that as he flew to the Gulf Coast League for his first professional assignment, he entered his professional career with no real expectations of staying in the game. But he just kept getting hitters out -- and eight long years later, he sat across the desk from a beaming Rocco Baldelli, who informed Harper that he would be on his first career Opening Day roster after a successful spring as a non-roster invitee.\n\n\"It's everything I've worked for my career,\" Harper said. \"That's why I'm still playing. As you guys asked earlier, I turn 30 \\[soon\\], and I wouldn't still be playing if I didn't think I still had more in the tank to keep going. I feel as good as I've always felt, so hopefully I play as long as I can and keep enjoying it.\"\n\n\"He earned it,\" Baldelli said. \"He's earned it his entire baseball career. He's earned it this spring. I couldn't be happier for him and for us.\"\n\nHarper's fiancee had actually been in Fort Myers on Monday at the end of a four-day visit, but she left a matter of hours before Harper got the good news. She had just landed at home in Tennessee when Harper was able to reach her after learning he made the team.\n\n\"Now she's got to turn back around again and go up to Minnesota,\" Harper said.\n\nThis won't be Harper's first trip to the Majors. But this time, he might actually get to pitch.\n\nHarper joined the Mariners at Fenway Park on May 28, 2017 -- after his coaches in Triple-A Tacoma had originally led him to think he was getting demoted to Double-A -- but he never got the opportunity to take the field before he was optioned back down three days later, when