Bryce Harper hits 40th home run, fan who catches it trades him for signed baseball

Fan who caught Harper's 40th trades for signed ball

By Matt Monagan

September 16, 2015

Bryce Harper hit his 40th home run of the season during the Nationals' 12-2 win over the Phillies on Wednesday. He's the seventh player to reach the mark in his age-22 season -- joining Alex Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez, Johnny Bench, Eddie Mathews (twice), Joe DiMaggio and Mel Ott.

That's some good company.

A Phillies fan caught the ball and smartly traded the milestone souvenir for another baseball ... that Bryce Harper signed:

MLB.com's Bill Ladson asked Harper about the moment postgame:

"A fan threw it down. He had a pen, so I signed one of the balls for him. I threw it back up to him and I got the [home run] ball. I'm thankful for that. It's pretty cool to have that kind of ball."

On Phillies fans:

"They are great fans here. They know baseball. I think when somebody does something special like that, these fans appreciate that. … I was very thankful."

It's still early, but we're guessing that piece of memorabilia might be worth a small bit of change someday. Whatever you do, just DO NOT play a game of sandlot baseball with it. You never know what could happen ...