Phillies owner John Middleton: Bryce Harper’s homer was like a fairy tale

John Middleton was sitting in his suite at Citizens Bank Park on Sunday evening with the Phillies trailing by a run and six outs away from boarding a flight to San Diego.

The energy that buzzed through South Philadelphia all weekend was starting to wane. But Middleton isn’t just the team’s managing partner. The billionaire is also the ballclub’s richest fan. And that means he can allow himself to dream.

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He looked at the lineup — ”We have two guys coming up who can tie this game and win it,” Middleton said — and began to believe alongside the paying customers. And soon everyone, even the owner, was doing whatever it took to push Bryce Harper’s pennant-winning homer over the fence.

“Please stay up,” Middleton pleaded as the ball soared through the air. “Go, go, go.”

It was the moment Middleton craved nearly four years ago when he twice flew to Las Vegas, urging Harper to board his private jet and join the Phillies. The team had owned the city for five years, but the days of Jimmy, Ryan, Chase, and Cole had faded away.

The Phillies weren’t irrelevant in town, but baseball was not at the front of the sporting landscape. Middleton needed a winner. He needed Harper.

“It was never about the money,” said Middleton, who gave Harper what was then the richest contract in North American sports, a 13-year deal for $330 million. “If you’re in this business to make money, you’re in the wrong business. There’s only one reason to be in this business and that’s to win.”

They bonded over their families — the deal-sealing dinner included just them and their wives — and a shared passion for winning. Middleton told Harper that his goal was to have a Phillies team considered 100 years from now as one of the greatest teams in history.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever hit that, but that’s what I’m shooting for,” Middleton said. “Anything less than that to me, I won’t say it’s failure, but it won’t be achieving my goals.”

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Everything seemed to come back to winning, and Middleton said the process often felt like Harper was interviewing him as much as he was interviewing Harper.

“I’m trying to figure out if this is the guy I can trust to hand $330 million to and he’s going to be hungry and come out every day and work hard and push and be kind of a team leader,” Middleton said. “He’s looking at me and saying, ‘Is this the guy I want to hitch my wagon to? Is this the guy that’s going to continue to push to get things done in order to win a World Series, and not win one but win multiples?’ ”

They’ll travel later this week to Houston, four wins shy of a world championship. The Phillies fired their manager in June, played 32% of the regular season with Harper on the injured list, and didn’t secure a postseason berth until the final series of the season.

Now they’re the last National League team left, dancing on their own into the World Series. Middleton is four wins away from getting his trophy back.

“That’s a nice thought,” Middleton said. “When you think about where we were on June 2 and 3, did you really think we were going to be here?”

Everything Middleton thought about Harper in the winter before the 2019 season turned out to be true, he said. The $330 million man has been so good for the Phillies — both on and off the field — that Middleton texted Harper’s agent Scott Boras recently and told him, “I’m not sure that you can say we underpaid somebody when we paid him $330 million. But I think I might have.”

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“There have been no disappointments,” Middleton said. “Sometimes when you go through that process, you think you understand somebody and then what you really get is a little bit different. There’s nothing different with Bryce. He’s just committed to winning. I think if they told him that he had to play third base, he would play third base. He’ll hit wherever you want him in the lineup. He’ll play whatever position you need him to play. He just wants to win.”

The fans were in no rush to leave Sunday night as the ballpark still buzzed more than 15 minutes after the Phillies won the pennant. Middleton found Harper — the player he hoped could fill the ballpark and make it sound like it used to — and gave him a hug.

He told him how he had hope in the eighth inning when he saw J.T. Realmuto was leading off with Harper on deck. A Realmuto single and a Harper homer and the place was jumping. Even the owner’s box. He cracked at Harper that he was underpaid as they stood in the center of a ballpark that rocked the way it does when baseball is buzzing around here. The Phillies have a winner, again.

“I told him this is like a fairy tale,” Middleton said.