Our fans should know that the Phillies organization is committed to restoring the Phillies to its recent dominant past. We will approach the 2017 season and the years to follow with even greater intensity and determination, knowing our fans are eager to bring a championship back to Philadelphia. We intend to accomplish that goal.
I'm grateful that the Buck family, Major League Baseball, and the other Major League clubs have confidence in my ability to lead our franchise into the future.
The only reason professional sports teams - I shouldn't say the only reason, but the most important reason professional sports teams exist - is to win. And if you're not aiming to win, then you really don't belong owning a sports team, in my opinion. So you've got to be moving there.
Philadelphia is a big market. We're going to operate the team like it's in a big market. We've got a very good contract with Comcast for our local TV. We're going to be aggressive when it's appropriate to be aggressive.
I have worked extraordinarily hard for decades to ensure the success of our family business for all of the Middleton family.
Whatever we can't develop internally - and nobody develops everything internally - you have to be able to trade and sign free agents.
You have to go through a process, but you have to understand, if your objective is to win the World Series, we may not be winning it in 2017 or 2018, but that's got to be what your goal is, and you have to have a plan to get there, and you have to know, every step of the way, are you on plan - on schedule - or not.
