A rendering of GHOST Energy Deck at Citizens Bank Park, which will replace Harry the K's. (Credit: Philadelphia Phillies)
PHILADELPHIA — Phillies managing partner John Middleton responded Tuesday to backlash over a branding change to one of Citizens Bank Park's oldest features.
Last week, the Phillies announced that they had updated the branding of the left field scoreboard porch to the "Ghost Energy Deck." That drew widespread ire, as the section had previously been called Harry The K's—in honor of Hall of Fame announcer Harry Kalas—since the stadium opened in 2004.
At an event Tuesday evening unveiling updates to the Hall of Fame Club and New Era Team Store at Citizens Bank Park, Middleton was asked for his reaction on the discourse.
"Well, you know, look, I get it. There's an emotion to that," Middleton said. "But there's a seven-foot statue of the guy [Kalas] in left field. The broadcast booth is named for him and has a plaque. I mean, it's not like we're not honoring his legacy. And it's not like we're not going to continue to honor his legacy during the future."
Middleton then pivoted to discussing the legacy of another great announcer in Philadelphia baseball history, By Saam.
"One of the hard things if you have an old team like we do is there's a lot of people to honor," Middleton said. "So, for example, By Saam was Harry Kalas, 40-45 years before Harry Kalas was Harry Kalas. I grew up with By Saam. You tell me where in this ballpark you can find anything honoring By Saam, who won the same award in 1990 [Ford C. Frick Award] that Harry won, whatever it was, 25, 30 years later.
"So, that's my point. We need to do something for By Saam too, because he was as big for the Phillies as Harry has been. Now, obviously, an older generation. You have to be basically my age [71], which is pretty old, to have really listened to By Saam and been a fan of his."
Middleton went on to compare trying to honor Saam to the team retiring the numbers — although, no number was actually retired, but rather a "uniform insignia" from their era because they didn't have numbers — of Ed Delahanty, Sam Thompson and Billy Hamilton last year. These were three of the franchise's earliest stars, and Middleton's point is that they shouldn't be remembered any less than recent number retirees, such as Roy Halladay and Dick Allen, just because they played longer ago.
So, perhaps, the Phillies will honor Saam — who was the announcer for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1938-1954, before serving in the same role with the Phillies from 1939-1949 and again from 1955-1976 — in the near future.
Of course, they aren't renaming Harry The K's after Saam, and that's what the original question pertained to. Instead, it's being named after Ghost Energy.
The Phillies did have to pay Kalas' family to call it Harry The K's, but without revealing what the annual fee was, Middleton said "A) We have to pay them, but B) it's not so much money that it's a financial decision." When asked, Middleton said he did not talk to Eileen Kalas, Harry's widow, about the decision.
Perhaps the money quote from Middleton's discussion on the renaming was this.
"The money we save [from paying the Kalas Family] is gonna maybe buy some napkins, or something like that," Middleton said. "It's not like serious, serious money. We're not gonna go out and buy a new player. Now, the money that Ghost is paying us, that could fund a player."
