John Middleton Stands Alone As An All-Time Great Sports Owner
Phillies owner making all the right moves on and off the baseball diamond...
Owners of major sports franchises often cut complicated figures.
They seem different than most mere mortals because of their unimaginable wealth. Most do everything within their power to remain lurking in the shadows.
Some even court controversy at every single turn, some by design, others by virtue of just being a walking dumpster fire.
Think Jim Dolan, who owns the New York Rangers / New York Knicks. He can’t get out of his own way and has been on the front pages more times than his teams have been on the back pages in The Big Apple. Or so it seems anyway.
Dare we even get into former Washington Commanders owner Dan Synder’s long laundry list of almost daily sins? No, probably best we leave that one well alone.
Then you have the unbearable John Fisher, who has treated the Oakland Athletics - a proud and storied franchise - as a tool in which to pad his pockets with more money. Like he needs it. He has put a garbage field on the product for years now and, if that wasn’t enough, after decades of treating A’s fans with disdain at every possible turn, he delivered the ultimate smack in the face by attempting to move the team to Vegas right under their nose.
Baseball without a team in Oakland just doesn’t seem right.
Even owners who avoid landing on the front pages - or on Page Six of The New York Post - still find a way to piss off their fans by not putting their team in the best possible position to win. That situation is playing out with the New York Yankees right now. Fans are outraged that owner Hal Steinbrenner isn’t doing more to improve the team, despite the fact they’ve not been to a World Series since 2009. Which, for the Yanks, the most iconic brand in sports and with a history of only winning, that represents a massive failure. But, despite having the second highest payroll in Baseball in 2023 - behind the Mets - Steinbrenner seems more focussed on sustainability rather than on going all out to win. That approach resulted in the Yanks missing the Playoffs this year for the first time since 2016.
You can just imagine how that went down in the Bronx.
The point I’m trying to make is that most owners of major sports franchises have very little connection to their fanbases. The large chunk of owners value profit way more than they do winning. They may not admit it. But they do. And their actions prove that point.
That isn’t the case with Phillies owner John Middleton.
We have seen a glowing example this week that not only is Middleton ALL IN ON WINNING, but he is more connected to his fans than any other owner in professional sports.
And it isn’t even close.
Picture the scene. Prior to Game 2, a random figure was seen helping clean up after batting practice.
Who could it be?
It was Middleton.
And this wasn’t for show. Middleton can often be seen on the field before games, picking up stray balls, chatting to reporters, talking to players and coaches and, as he was before Game 2, throwing balls to fans in the stands. He can also be seen roaming the concourse, handing out ticket upgrades to passers by. He’s even handed over his suite to fans.
If that wasn’t enough, Middleton, rather than lock himself away in a luxury box where he doesn’t have to mix with anyone, like pretty much every other owner in sports, was then seen climbing into the stands, hauling a huge bag of baseballs behind him, and then proceeding to hand them out to fans while stood on top of the home dugout.
And not a security guy or oversized handler in sight.
How freaking cool is that?!
https://twitter.com/TarynNBCS/status/1709763017691254892
And, during all of that, Middleton was seen sporting a constant wide smile on his face, laughing and joking with his fellow fans. Because that’s what he is; he’s a Phillies fan first and foremost.
It is a rare sight to see an owner that willingly so actively involved with the fans.
It’s incredibly refreshing.
But that isn’t the only lovable and admirable thing about Middleton.
He truly understands the market he is in and he knows that winning is all that matters. He gets that Philadelphians live and die with their teams - nothing else matters. Literally nothing else matters more to Phillies fans than seeing their team be competitive. Than seeing their beloved ball club win and play good, entertaining, fun baseball.
Middleton embraces all of that.
When he took a more active role in the team in 2016, the Phillies were an absolute hot mess and not going anywhere anytime soon. They were mired in baseball mediocrity. That soon changed. Middleton began gradually putting the pieces in place with the long-term goal being to build a perennial winner that could compete year in and year out.
He rebuilt the farm system. He made the right moves in the front office. He put the right people in the dugout. And he put everything in place so, when the time was right, he could pull the trigger on some major moves.
Just as nothing else other than winning matters to the fan, nothing else matters in the eyes of Middleton. He has committed around $1 billion dollars to a core of players he believes will deliver not one but multiple Word Series Titles to the City Of Brotherly Love. Big-ticket deals were dished out, first to superstar Bryce Harper, then to Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos.
Then, after making the World Series in 2022 but falling to the Houston Astros, Middleton wasn’t satisfied. Not even close. While a lot of owners would have run to the bank with the profits garnered from such a deep postseason run, Middleton poured his profits back into the team and pushed all of his chips into the middle of the table. He handed a monster 11-year, $300 million deal to star shortstop Trea Turner, before beefing up the starting rotation by signing veteran Taijuan Walker to a four-year, $72 million contract. There were other moves and more dollars handed out too.
Shove your profit in the garbage. Middleton doesn’t care about profit. He doesn’t care about barreling through the luxury-tax threshold and incurring a slew of penalties. He just cares about winning. Exactly like the fans he so passionately serves.
Just check out these all-time quotes from Middleton on winning:
“How much did the ‘27 Yankees make? Or the ‘29 A’s? Or the ‘75-’76 Big Red Machine? Does anybody know? Does anybody care? Nobody knows or cares whether any of them made any money or not. And nobody cares about whether I make money or not. If my legacy is that I didn’t lose any money owning a baseball team on an annual operating basis, that’s a pretty sad legacy. It’s about putting trophies in the case.
“If your ambition is to be good, you don’t make those decisions (to sign Trea Turner). If your ambition is to be great, you make those decisions. It’s about desire, really. I just want to win. And if you’re overpaying 10 years from now for athletes who got you a couple, three World Series titles, I mean, what do I care? Seriously. What do I care? And I can guarantee that none of our fans would care.
“My goal is that we create a team that, 100 years from now, when people ask the question, ‘What are the greatest teams in the history of baseball,’ the Phillies are in the conversation.
“The day I wake up and I’m not thinking about what we can do to make ourselves the best team in baseball history, I’m retiring. I’m walking away. I’m really not interested in anything else.
- John Middleton in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Scott Lauber. You can read the full piece HERE.
Those are some legendary quotes. Those need to be sent to Fisher in Oakland, to Steinbrenner in New York, and to every single owner in professional sports as a blueprint on how to run a franchise.
Heck, those quotes deserve a place in Cooperstown in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Middleton is the kind of owner every single fanbase on the planet craves. He puts winning above profit. And above everything else too.
And you can be sure that if the Phillies fall short again this year, he’ll be as aggressive as ever during the offseason, spending whatever is required and blowing through more luxury tax thresholds in order to get his team over the hump.
That’s what owners should be doing. This is sports. This is entertainment. The name of the game shouldn’t be about making a profit for stupidly rich owners who already boast more wealth than most people can only dream of.
The goal is to win. And to entertain while winning.
Middleton is doing it the right way. And he’s showing other sports owners in every single pocket of the country how they should be doing it too.
Now, I’m sure Mets fans in my life won’t be happy if I don’t give some kudos to Steve Cohen, who is doing similar things to Middleton in New York. He has propelled the Mets to having the highest payroll in baseball since buying the team in 2020. He has also strived to make the fan experience a whole lot better in Queens too. He and his family can regularly be seen mixing with fans, and they have done a hell of a lot for the community too. Cohen has also hit a home run when reconnecting the franchise with its past too, shining a light on the organization’s rich history.
Although I haven’t seen Steve Cohen climb into the stands and throw balls to fans. Yet.
But, given that Middleton has been walking through the concourse at Citizen Banks Park handing out ticket upgrade to fans for years, given that he’s been supporting the Philadelphia community and supporting local schools for years, and given that he’s been ultra-committed to putting a winning product on the field for years, I’d say he deserves that tiebreaker.
John Middleton has been doing the same things for a large sample size now. But, in building a team that is capable of making it back to the World Series, and in mixing with fans and carrying out his usual pre-game routine this week, Middleton has reminded all of us what a sports owner should be and what a sports owner should look like.
He engages with his fans, supports his community and is committed to putting a winning product on the field. He's the best owner in sports. Period.
John Middleton is the absolute gold standard. And the Phillies are beyond lucky to have him.
Other sports owners across America; please take note. And now.
