Phillies reflect on family culture in mourning the loss of chairman David Montgomery

On Wednesday morning, the Philadelphia Phillies mourned the loss of long-time executive David Montgomery, who helped bring the city its first championship in 28 years back in 2008.

When the Philadelphia Phillies took the field on Wednesday afternoon, a somber aura resonated through the visitor’s dugout at Busch Stadium.

Fresh off of a dominant performance from their ace on the hill and a slump-busting Bryce Harper offensive outburst, you would expect the team’s energy-level to be on the rise with a chance to take the series win against the St. Louis Cardinals.

The mood throughout the Phillies organization was the polar opposite. Earlier on Wednesday morning, team chairman and former president David Montgomery passed away at the age of 72, following a five-year bout with cancer.

Montgomery was a lifelong Philadelphian, a Roxborough native, with a burning passion for the Fightin’ Phils from his earliest days. As a child, he would urge his parents to arrive at Connie Mack Stadium promptly, to make sure they didn’t miss out on the seats with a clear view of Richie Ashburn and Robin Roberts–his childhood heroes.

While attending Penn University’s Wharton School of Business, Montgomery formed a connection with the same men that he used to gaze at in awe on the diamond. While volunteering as Germantown Academy’s varsity football line coach, the Penn student coached Danny Roberts, the son of Robert.

Through a whirlwind of events, including pick-up basketball games with Roberts and Ashburn, the Hall of Fame pitcher finagled Montgomery into Bill Giles sightline, the Phillies Vice President for Business Operations at the time. Thanks to efforts by Roberts, Montgomery landed a position as a ticket salesman–earning a mere $150 per week.

Fueled by the pure enjoyment of working for his childhood team, Montgomery embraced the position by working the phones during the day and serving as scoreboard operator in the inaugural season at Veterans Stadium for the summer of 1971.

Over the next 10 seasons, Montgomery would climb the chain of command, becoming Executive Vice President following the 1981 season when Bill Giles purchased the team.

He continued to work his way up the ranks, serving as Chief Operating Officer from 1992-97 before taking a stake in the organization that he lived and breathed since his childhood days in the city.

In 1997, Montgomery became a general partner of the Phillies–serving as President and Chief Executive Officer.

During his 17-year run in those positions, Montgomery spearheaded the construction of Citizens Bank Park in 2004. He watched on–in the ballpark he brought to the city–as Brad Lidge tossed an 0-2 slider with late break that Tampa Bay’s Eric Hinske swung overtop as the Phillies brought home the team’s first championship in 28 years.

With the onset of his cancer diagnosis, Montgomery opted to step away from the team in August of 2014.

He returned to the Phillies shortly after, transitioning into the role of Team Chairman, which he would serve from 2015 through the end of his life. In his time in an executive role with the organization, the Phillies won 12 division championships, five National League Championships and two World Series Championships.

The results on the field were a direct result of Montgomery’s impact off the field.

The former ticket salesman never lost his love for serving the Philly faithful. In his piece for NBC Sports Philadelphia, Jim Salisbury recalled a moment where Montgomery’s humility was front-and-center:

"One day back in the late 90’s, after he had become club president, a woman approached him on the concourse at Veterans Stadium.“I remember you when you were just a little ticket seller,” the woman said.David laughed.“I still am just a little ticket seller,” he responded."

Serving as a part-owner and team president, Montgomery formed relationships with every employee within the Phillies organization, from the coaching staff and players to even the parking attendants.

“He knew everybody’s first and last name,” former manager and current team senior advisor Larry Bowa recalled in a press conference Wednesday morning. “If you were a vendor selling popcorn or beer if you were clubhouse guy doing the wash.” “If you were a season ticket holder,” Bowa mentioned, “he treated you like you were the king.”

Former second-baseman turned club ambassador, Mickey Morandini, battled tears in his portion of the press conference while reflecting on the sheer selflessness that Montgomery embodied.

“It’s truly amazing how many people’s lives he touched,” Morandini commented while choking up at the podium.

He relayed on Bowa’s sentiment in that “I’d be with him and he’d stop the security guard…he’d know the security guards wife and children. Then the front office guy would come and he’d ask ‘how’s the wife’ and he knew their children. Then the custodian, he knew the wife, he knew the children.”

The family atmosphere that Montgomery built within the organization played a vital role in bringing a World Championship parade back to Broad Street in 2008. Chase Utley credits Montgomery’s welcoming, all-inclusive environment to the team’s success on the field:

“Looking back on it, the success we had, it had a lot to do with the environment we were in. You want to win for a lot of reasons. One of those reasons is for men like Dave, what they’ve done for not only the organization but for the city.”

A city that he loved with all his heart, Montgomery was a walking embodiment of “Brotherly Love.”

Despite reaching the pinnacle of executive success, the Philadelphia native desired only to give back. He was a true example of selflessness, constantly giving back and never asking for nor expecting anything in return.

Montgomery founded the Phillies Phestival – an annual special event which raises awareness (and millions of dollars) toward fighting ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The event will celebrate its 35th anniversary next month.

Not only did the former Phillies president give back to the team he loved, but he also supported every–and I mean EVERY–facet of the community in Philadelphia. Montgomery was a proud supporter of the arts, serving as a member on the Board of Overseers of the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at Penn University and volunteering at the Walnut Street Theater in Center City.

A proponent of emerging media and sports journalism, the Penn graduate served on the policy board of WXPN, the university’s member-supported radio station, and volunteered at PHL Sports–a division of the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau.

He embraced the city and its future–the young minds of Philadelphia’s school system. Montgomery’s volunteer efforts extended to the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, Need in Deed–a non-profit working with children in Philadelphia public schools–and the Children’s Scholarship Fund.

In the summer of 2014, South Philadelphia’s Taney Little League represented the city in a memorable performance in Williamsport at the Little League World Series.

Despite the early and brutally challenging stage in his fight against cancer, Montgomery was determined to welcome the team to Citizens Bank Park–attending the pre-game honors while sporting a Taney Little League hat and high-fiving every single one of the young players.

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Montgomery did all this while balancing his various executive roles and remembering the names, faces and personal details of every employee within the organization. To echo the words of Morandini, “I meet someone and 20 minutes I’m like, I forget their name already. It was amazing, It was utterly amazing.”

Towards the later stages of his life, Montgomery may have taken an emeritus role within the organization, but the foundation of his family-oriented atmosphere in the locker room helped land mega free-agent Bryce Harper. Team Owner, John Middleton, resonated the family-first culture of the locker room and the city in his numerous meetings with Harper over the summer.

Middleton, a philanthropist who embraces the act of giving, emulates Montgomery and stated, “He is an example to all of us and we should be grateful that he was in our lives and for all the ways that he touched not only us personally but literally thousands and thousands of people.”

Despite the somber undertone along the bench, it was business as usual for the Phillies in their Wednesday matinee against the Cardinals–just as David Montgomery would have wanted it to be. The original Phillies fanatic would have likely been smiling on as Jared Eickhoff tossed a gem in the home park of the team he would frequent as a youngster, tossing eight innings of shutout baseball–allowing just three hits and striking out four.

Riding Eickhoff’s strong performance on the hill, with the offensive support of Caesar Hernandez’s mammoth 3-for-5 afternoon at the dish that featured three RBIs and a seventh-inning shot that cleared the right-field fence, the Phillies stormed to the series victory in Montgomery’s honor.

The team travels to Kansas City for a weekend series against a Royals squad sitting dead-last in the American League Central Division.

While the Phillies look to ride the arm of right-hander Jake Arrieta on the road and build on their three-game lead in the NL East, flags across the city of Philadelphia will fly at half-staff for a week in Montgomery’s honor.

The team will surely incorporate their former president and part-owner’s memory into their uniform and the remainder of their season, but the atmosphere throughout the offices at 1 Citizens Bank Way will have a solemn undertow for the foreseeable future.

Without question, Montgomery will always be one of the most impactful personalities in Phillies history, and he will forever be missed.