‘Dude, Bryce wants your hat’ — Fan goes viral after trading hats with Harper
Bryce Harper noticed a fan’s throwback cap. The fan, a linebacker at Clemson, was happy to make a trade.
When Keith Maguire was offered a ticket to Thursday’s Phillies-Padres game at Citizens Bank Park, he had a problem. He didn’t have any of his Phillies gear.
The 21-year-old came back home from Clemson University, where he plays linebacker for the national powerhouse football team. He didn’t bring up any of his Phillies apparel.
So, Maguire stopped inside the ballpark and picked up a powder blue Bryce Harper jersey. He then grabbed a matching hat with “Phillies” written out in the throwback font.
He liked it.
He wasn’t the only one.
Maguire sat with three of his friends in the Diamond Club, right along the Phillies’ dugout railing. His friend from high school at Malvern Prep, Gavin McHugh, looked over one inning and saw Phillies slugger Bryce Harper walking around the dugout. He gave him a nod. Bryce waved back.
“That was sweet,” McHugh said.
That interaction is all that group would have asked for.
But in the sixth inning, McHugh noticed Harper take off his hat. He found a pen and started autographing it. McHugh looked around, thinking maybe Harper was giving it to a fan somewhere. Then, he looked right up at him.
“Yo, your buddy’s hat is sweet,” Harper said to McHugh. “Can we do a trade-off?”
McHugh was stunned. He stood right up and said yes, not even asking for permission.
Maguire was confused as his buddies reached for his hat.
“Dude, Bryce wants your hat!” they told him.
Maguire looked over and saw Harper waving his signed, maroon throwback hat the Phillies wear on Thursday home games. He was on board now.
Harper tossed his over. Maguire handed his to McHugh who tossed it back over the railing and into the dugout. Harper caught it, thanked them, and showed off his new digs to pitchers Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola.
Trade of a lifetime.
“As soon as I heard Bryce wanted to trade, I was like, ‘just take it!’” Maguire said. “And all of a sudden, I saw all the videos and people started reaching out.”
The interaction was caught on the NBC Sports Philadelphia broadcast and became a viral hit. Various social media pages shared the video while friends and family tagged them in posts and sent photos of their paused TV screens.
McHugh posted a Tweet with the signed hat and his phone “started blowing up.” He gained more than 3,000 followers in a few hours.
Maguire and McHugh watched the rest of the game with their friends Mike Hussey and Mike O’Brien, constantly checking their phone to see new messages.
They looked over as the dugout heard of the trade and saw outfielder Kyle Schwarber and infielder Alec Bohm walk over to check it out. They chatted with the amazed fans around them and passed the hat around to each other for photo ops.
A day at the ballpark became a moment they’d never forget.
“It was just a very awesome, random thing,” Maguire said. “You’ve got to embrace the moment.”
— Beyond The Bell contributor Graham Foley
