

The updated listing. (Via Lelands.com)

An online auction house has updated the item description for a signed Bryce Harper jersey after the Nationals outfielder claimed the memorabilia available for bid was not as advertised.

Lelands.com added the following note on Wednesday morning to the listing page for a Harper jersey that was originally described as the one Harper was wearing during his dugout altercation with Jonathan Papelbon last September:

UPDATE: This jersey was worn in the game that the fight occurred in as was confirmed by MLB, but does not appear to have been worn during the actual fight.

(As of Wednesday evening, the description beneath the update had not been edited to remove a reference to the “jersey Harper wore during the altercation.”)

“That’s my MVP jersey, and I have it,” Harper told the Associated Press on Saturday after he learned that his game-worn jersey from Sept. 27, 2015 was part of Lelands’ Summer Catalog auction.

Harper said that he superstitiously wore the same home white jersey in every game last season and marked it with stitching near the hem. A source told the AP that on days when Harper knew that the Nationals’ game-worn jerseys would be collected for authentication and distribution, as they were on the day he tussled with Papelbon, he would wear a different jersey during the early innings and then change into his lucky jersey. That could explain how an anonymous consignor ended up with an MLB-authenticated, game-worn Harper jersey from the day of the fight, yet Harper still has in his possession the jersey he was wearing during the eighth-inning dust-up.

“In the end, I’m glad that Bryce Harper brought this to our attention,” Lelands founder Josh Evans told The Post in a phone call Wednesday. “All’s well that ends well. It’s still a great piece and we’re going to leave it in the auction.”

Earlier this week, Evans was convinced that Harper was mistaken, citing the stain on the back of the jersey being auctioned. At first glance, the stain, which starts at the “4” on the back of Harper’s jersey and extends to his right shoulder, appears to match the stain on Harper’s jersey in a screenshot of him approaching the dugout prior to his altercation with Papelbon. A closer look reveals that the stains are similar, but not identical.



The pine tar stain on the Bryce Harper jersey available for auction (left) begins to the right of the “4” and extends to the shoulder. The pine tar stain on the jersey Harper was wearing during his altercation with Jonathan Papelbon begins directly above the “4” and extends to the shoulder. (Via Lelands and MLB.com)

Evans, who considered pulling the piece from the auction after noticing the discrepancies between the stains on Tuesday, estimates that this jersey won’t fetch the same price as the one from the fight would have.

“A shirt that was worn in the fight that had all this media attention around it would probably be worth anywhere from $25,000 to $100,000,” Evans said. “Going into it, we did not have those kind of expectations because, frankly, we didn’t know it would become a media hailstorm. But, still being a jersey from the game, it’s definitely in that, say, $10,000 to $20,000 range. That’s my estimate. It’s worth whatever anyone is willing to pay for it.”

Bidding for the jersey was up to $7,073.84 by Wednesday afternoon and the latest bid came after the listing was updated. For comparison, a game-used, unsigned Harper jersey from the Nationals’ 2016 home opener sold for more than $13,000 earlier this month.

“We screwed up on this, definitely,” Evans said. “If we didn’t have a good track record, it would be upsetting to say that, but I think doing the right thing kind of sets you free. It’s a big part of the business, unfortunately.”

For the record, Harper didn’t appear to have any stain on the back of his jersey after his first at-bat of the game in question.

By his second at-bat in the third inning, Harper’s jersey featured a stain that appears to match the one on his jersey in the eighth inning.

It’s fairly common for Harper to sport pine star stains similar to the ones he had on his two jerseys on the day of the Papelbon fight.



Bryce Harper runs to second base during a game earlier this year. (Jonathan McDonnell/The Washington Post)