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Phillies owner John Middleton steps up to the plate

When Ruly Carpenter sold the Philadelphia Phillies to an ownership group headed by Bill Giles back in 1981, the men and women who owned the franchise became a largely nameless, faceless group who worked behind the scenes. Giles was the front man, but the decision makers, and more importantly, the people who held the purse strings, were largely unseen.

And for the most part since then, that setup has remained the same, with Giles succeeded by David Montgomery as team president and face of the ownership group. However, as Montgomery was forced out last year, a new dynamic emerged with reports that one of the owners, John Middleton, was trying to become a majority owner of the team, desirous of taking on a larger and more prominent role.