CINCINNATI -- Bryce Harper has never been much of a collector -- but that might be about to change.
Teammate and card-collecting enthusiast Matt Strahm put out a call on X last week to anyone and everyone who might be holding some potential Harper collectibles -- and Harper is willing to compensate with some pretty cool collectibles of his own.
Strahm posted: "Anyone with low pop/rare Harper cards that is interested in trading him game-used memorabilia (batting gloves, bats, cleat) for them comment the card below. Going to help get his collections started."
While this has been a noted passion for Strahm, it's entirely new territory for Harper.
"I never collected cards growing up or anything like that," Harper said. "My dad definitely had baseball cards and stuff, but I never really collected them."
So, why start now?
"It's just more my own cards than anything else," Harper said. "I've never had anything like that, so I think it'd be cool. Strahmer was like, 'I'll throw out a tweet' and I was like, 'All right, we'll see what comes from that.'"
Well, that one post generated so much interest from countless fans replying and sharing photos of Harper cards that Strahm has had no chance to get through all of them yet. He even replied to one fan: "I’ve started a fire I can’t contain."
It turns out, though, Harper already got the ball rolling on his collection with a little help from Rangers reliever Shawn Armstrong.
It's not uncommon across the Majors for players to send cards, collectibles or other memorabilia over to an opposing clubhouse to have a particular player sign it. Harper has signed plenty of items over the years, but one recent request caught his eye.
"Shawn Armstrong from the Rangers sent me over a couple to sign, but one of them was numbered -- and it was No. 3 of 50," Harper said, referencing the limited number of prints for that particular card. "So I liked that it was No. 3, because it's my number, obviously. So I asked him if he'd be willing to trade me something for it, and he did. So that was really cool of him."
That particular card might just prove to be the start of something special -- especially once Strahm finds the time to sort through all those submissions.
Harper isn't quite sure what he's going to do with the cards yet. He just knows that he's ready to start holding onto some things from his career -- something the two-time MVP admits he hasn't done nearly enough of to this point.
"I'm not super into getting stuff signed -- I've just never really been into that," Harper said. "Like I don't ask guys for bats or cleats or gloves or jerseys or stuff like that. I've thought about certain things that I'd maybe want, but I don't keep a lot of my stuff.
"Honestly, I wish I would have more when I first got to the big leagues. I threw away so much stuff. You know, just like tossed it in the trash and didn't even think about it. My wife always talks to me about it, she's like, 'What are you doing? Keep this stuff, it's really cool to have and [our kids] might want it.'"
Harper has plenty of time to build that collection ... especially with Strahm in his corner.