PHILADELPHIA — Last summer, the Phillies held a private ceremony in a boardroom on the upper level of the club’s offices at Citizens Bank Park. Every full-time employee in the organization received a ring commemorating the 2022 National League championship. John Middleton, who devoted considerable time and energy to thinking about the rings, ordered a couple of dozen extra.
He wanted to give them to the players the Phillies have honored on their Wall of Fame.
“I finally got a ring,” longtime catcher Mike Lieberthal said to Middleton.
“That,” Middleton said, “was a great reaction.”
To Middleton, it was a small but meaningful token. The reactions stuck with Middleton, the club’s CEO, who has since commissioned a new ring now bestowed to every Wall of Famer. He surprised 15 of the Phillies’ Wall of Famers with the 8.2-karat ring over the weekend. Every future honoree will receive one. The ceremonies for alumni weekend concluded Sunday with a 150-person dinner at the Middleton home in the posh suburbs.
If something is important to Middleton, then, generally, it is done. As the club’s managing partner, although not a majority owner as outlined in the agreement that governs the Phillies, Middleton wields more influence than anyone. Ownership has invested a franchise-record payroll on this year’s team. He watched that roster sprint to the best record in baseball through mid-July.
And, with alumni in town from some of the best Phillies teams ever, Middleton could apply some historical context to his current team’s recent spiral. He tried.
It did not make him feel much better.
“The first week (of the slump) was bad,” Middleton said in a recent wide-ranging interview. “But that happens. The second week was worse. But that happens. By the time it got to the third and fourth week, it was like, ‘OK. Stop.’”
Middleton was aware of relevant history; last year’s league champions (the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks) each endured 24-game stretches of a 7-17 record. But, in the same breath, he invoked the 1978 Boston Red Sox, who had a 10-game lead over the New York Yankees and lost the title in Game 163 when Bucky Dent homered. The Phillies, after taking three of four from the Washington Nationals, ended the weekend with the best record in the National League. It’s all relative.
John Middleton tosses souvenir baseballs to fans during last year’s playoffs. (Chris Szagola / Associated Press)
Those who watch games with Middleton have described him as “very emotional.” He was in the upper deck at Connie Mack Stadium on Sept. 21, 1964 — a night that scarred an entire generation of Phillies fans and has conditioned others to expect the worst. That has colored Middleton’s perspective even while in charge of the whole operation.
“That’s largely my personality,” Middleton said.
It is why, during the season, he avoids the manager’s office and clubhouse. Middleton is best when he has a buffer, in this instance Dave Dombrowski, whom he unequivocally trusts with baseball decisions. He could not find fault in Dombrowski’s moves at the trade deadline; the two executives have an understanding.
And, still, none of this has dulled Middleton’s recent concern.
“Every game matters to me,” Middleton said. “Every single one. Every at-bat matters to me. There’s a mentality in baseball that is different from other sports. It’s a long season. You can’t get upset about what happened on a Tuesday night in July. Yeah, well, sometimes Tuesday nights in July determine season outcomes. Playoff outcomes. Every game matters to me. A lot. And I react that way. … But it’s also a reason why I’m very careful about not being around the players and the coaches too much. That’s Dave’s job.
“I know I wear my emotions on my sleeve much more so than Dave does. You have to understand your limitations. Your strengths and your weaknesses. You have to recognize and be objective in evaluating yourself. Let other people who can do those jobs better than you can do.”
So, Middleton oversees the business. It is a good time for the business. The Phillies are on pace for their best home attendance since 2012. The secondary ticket market is booming. Merchandise sales have skyrocketed.
The Phillies have spent money to make money, a principle Middleton sounds obligated to follow so long as he’s in ownership. The increased attention that has come with success reinforced to Middleton the power of acquiring star players.
“It’s remarkable how special this city is as a fan base,” Middleton said. “It’s why I keep telling everybody, it may be a privately-held business that we own, but it’s not a private organization. It’s a very public organization. It’s a stewardship. We have an obligation. We are accountable to the fans and to the city. If you don’t approach it that way, you shouldn’t be an owner, in my opinion.”
Few owners are willing to say that aloud, but Middleton likes that he’s recognized as one with legitimate passion. He has channeled it into more than signing payroll checks; the Phillies are regarded among players and agents as an organization that spares no expense in treating its people right. This was a pillar of David Montgomery’s leadership; the club’s longtime president was posthumously honored over the weekend with a place on the Wall of Fame. The Phillies dedicated the unusual piece of wall above the 409-foot marker in center field to Montgomery, calling it “Monty’s Angle.”
The toughest spot to hit one out at Citizens Bank Park, designed by David Montgomery himself.
Introducing Monty’s Angle! pic.twitter.com/ByE4Ah3B8j
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) August 17, 2024
Montgomery hired Pat Gillick in December 2005, and Gillick challenged the Phillies to think bigger. Middleton met the two men for lunch in an executive dining room at the ballpark on Gillick’s first day as general manager. They made small talk.
“I’m sure you’ve got some questions,” Gillick said to Middleton, who had yet to emerge from the shadows that once concealed Phillies ownership. “Fire away.”
Middleton’s second question: “What’s it take to win a World Series title?”
“Luck,” Gillick said.
This answer upset Middleton. There had to be something greater, more tangible than that.
“Good organizations consistently produce good teams that compete for and often get in the playoffs,” Middleton remembered Gillick telling him. “But the difference between getting in the playoffs and winning the World Series is luck. Because, to win the World Series, you have to have 25 healthy guys who are playing well at precisely the right moment in time. You can look at almost every season and there is a team that if the season stopped in July and they had the World Series, a different team would win the World Series than the team that ultimately won it.”
Maybe that would have been the Phillies this past July. So, maybe they timed their lull well; there are six more weeks to feel better about everything before the postseason tournament begins.
Middleton has come to understand what Gillick said.
“It’s so fragile,” Middleton said. “But it comes together in an instant. It’s what makes the late-90s Yankees teams unbelievable. They maintained that caliber for consecutive years. That’s so hard. Even great players have up-and-down seasons.
“You never know. Is Bryce Harper going to have an MVP year or just a really good year or a down year? It happens. So you have to strike while the iron’s hot. And it’s hot right now. The players and the coaching staff have to understand that. They have to go after it hard. And that’s what I love about Dave Dombrowski. He understands that too. He has a great feel for when you really have to step on the gas.”
There has been an urgency to push players and coaches to rethink things. “He has high standards,” Middleton said of Dombrowski, the club’s president of baseball operations. “He just doesn’t accept people who don’t do their jobs well. So he’s pushing everybody. That’s what needs to happen.” So, Middleton will trust it.
He’s asked his people — whether high-level decision-makers or those behind the scenes — to push as well. The details matter. This is why Middleton devoted attention to the Wall of Fame rings. To Middleton, they are a symbol of how the Phillies do business now.
He’d just like a bigger ring for everyone with the Phillies.
“I’ve always lived my life with the idea that whatever you’re doing today,” Middleton said, “you try to find ways to do it better tomorrow.”
GO DEEPER
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(Top photo of John Middleton: Bill Streicher / USA Today)
