Bryce Harper Jersey Sale Popularity Lags Behind His Pageview Popularity
By Jason Lisk
Bryce Harper is probably the most famous player in MLB right now, and one of the most discussed. He is also the defending NL MVP, and no stranger to headlines with wanting to make baseball fun again.
That fame, though, doesn’t translate to the top of the jersey sales charts. Don’t get me wrong, Harper is one of the most popular players as represented by jersey sales and where fans spend their money, but he’s more like a top 10 player in that regard.
The most recent info on jersey sales so far in 2016 shows Harper at #9. Ahh, but he’s been around, and on the same team. Sure, that plays some role, but we see plenty of others who are perennially in the top 5. Kris Bryant followed up leading in jersey sales a year ago to still being #2, behind only David Ortiz’ retirement season sales. Mike Trout, who has been intertwined with Harper when it comes to “face of baseball” debates, was just behind Harper five years ago, but has ranked higher every year since.
Here is a brief summary (using info on past jersey sales from 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015) of every active player who has ranked in the top 10 at least twice, with all of their top 20 jersey rankings. I also include, for comparison, the number of stories that have appeared on this site using each of those player’s names. (We like to write stories that people choose to read, and you can see Harper is #1 there, with almost double the mentions of Mike Trout).
There are market reasons that explain part of this. Certain team fanbases dominate jersey sales (Red Sox fans, Cubs fans, Dodgers and Giants fans, Yankees fans before they became Cavaliers fans the last two years). Washington may be a major top 10 market by population, but it is not a historically established franchise, having moved from Montreal during most fans’ lifetimes. That’s part of it, it’s still fascinating that Harper, coming off his first MVP season, went down slightly, and hasn’t been in the top 5 in the last four seasons, while Mike Trout maintains his position there.