Phillies Star Bryce Harper Has Two Ways to Stay Involved in Baseball Once He Retires

Harper discussed the two different paths that he envisions for himself once his baseball career is done.

Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper (middle) discussed two ways he envisions staying involved with baseball once his career is done. / Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper just spearheaded the franchise's NL East title and has hopes of bringing a World Series title to the city of Philadelphia.

In 541 plate appearances this season, Harper is batting .287 with 30 home runs and 87 RBI and remains a force in the middle of the order for the Phillies.

But that doesn't mean that he hasn't contemplated what he will do once his playing career is done. In fact, he has two distinct ways that he wants to remain involved in baseball once he eventually retires. Harper discussed those options with Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci.

"I talk to Scott [Boras, his agent] a lot and I tell him, ‘I want to coach after I’m done, but I want to go to college.’ That’s my dream,” he says. “I want to do it really bad. Scott always gives me crap. He's like, ‘You’re going to be a Hall of Famer … [and] you're going to go back and coach college kids?’

“I just want to put the baseball [playing] version of myself behind me and put my coach’s cap on. I want to do it that way at a college. I would never want to do it at the Major League level."

But just because Harper doesn't want to manage in the major leagues, doesn't mean he wouldn't want to be involved in the professional game entirely once his playing days are done. In fact, he could see himself owning a major league team someday.

“I could be an owner on the Major League level. I would love to do that. I’d rather own and do that. I would like to be an owner/president. I would like to do what [Phillies president of baseball operations Dave] Dombrowski does, but ownership-wise. So, I'd like to be [like Derek] Jeter [was with the Miami Marlins].“That's like my biggest dream. But coaching college would be great. Yeah, I think that would be awesome to work with kids at that age. It’s just a different vibe. Kind of different mindset, too. You know, I don’t want to lie to kids, either. Kids get lied to so much at the college level nowadays, too.

Harper turns 32 in mid-October, and has plenty of baseball left in front of him. But once he's done, expect him to stay involved the game that he loves so much.

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