WATCH: Clemson linebacker Keith Maguire trades hats with Bryce Harper
When Clemson linebacker Keith Maguire attended a Philadelphia Phillies game on Thursday, he decided to buy a new hat. He didn’t leave with it, though — because Bryce Harper asked him to trade for it.
In the sixth inning of the Phillies’ game against the San Diego Padres on Thursday, NBC Sports Philadelphia caught video of Harper asking Maguire for the hat from the dugout. In return, he signed his game-worn hat and tossed it to him in the stands.
To recap: A two-time MVP wanted Maguire’s hat, so he signed his game-worn hat as part of the trade. That sounds like a pretty good deal.
But why would Harper want a fan’s hat?
“[I] just really liked the hat, so I signed mine and asked if he wanted to trade,” Harper said, according to MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki.
Harper is entering his fourth season with the Phillies after signing a monster 13-year, $330 million deal with the team in 2018. He’s coming off an MVP season in 2021 in which he batted .309 with 35 home runs and 84 RBI while also leading Major League Baseball with a .429 slugging percentage. He’s trying to build off that season to help the Phillies in a crowded National League East, led by the rival New York Mets. Philadelphia is currently 18-20 and fell to the Padres 2-0 at Citizens Bank Park Thursday afternoon.
Maguire is going entering his fourth year with Clemson in 2022 and saw action in three games last year as a redshirt sophomore. His best year came in 2020 when he had 15 total tackles, including 3.0 tackles for loss, and a forced fumble as a redshirt freshman. Last season, he had seven total tackles in three games for the Tigers, who went 10-3.
He arrived in Clemson as a three-star recruit and the No. 8 prospect in Pennsylvania from the Class of 2019, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.