Cooperstown award series, Shenk: Beloved Montgomery Buck O'Neil winner

Longtime Philadelphia Phillies executive David Montgomery will be honoured posthumously with the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s 2020 Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award in a ceremony on Saturday. Photo: Associated Press

July 20, 2021

July 21, 2021

Cooperstown. N.Y. will stage its Awards Presentation Saturday afternoon. The Hall of Fame will honour 2021 Ford C. Frick Award winner for broadcasting excellence, Al Michaels, and the 2020 Frick Award winner, Ken Harrelson; the 2021 Baseball Writers’ Association of America Career Excellence Award winner, Dick Kaegel, and the 2020 BBWAA Career Excellence Award winner, Nick Cafardo; and the 2020 Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award winner, David Montgomery. It will be a TV-only event broadcast on MLB Network. In 2020, both the Induction Ceremony and Awards Presentation were cancelled due to the pandemic. This is the first in a series of articles paying tribute to the winners that will be honoured in the ceremony this Saturday.

By Larry (Baron) Shenk

Philadelphia Phillies

“I feel so fortunate. I got to spend my entire life working for the team I rooted for my whole life in the city I loved and lived in,” David P. Montgomery often said.

A kid who grew up in Philadelphia watching the Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium, Montgomery enjoyed an iconic executive career with his favourite team for nearly five decades.

The Hall of Fame announced over a year ago that Montgomery was the fifth recipient of the prestigious Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award. The presentation was scheduled to be held during the Hall of Fame induction weekend last July, but it was canceled by COVID-19. It will now take place this Saturday for an MLB Network broadcast. Lyn Montgomery, his widow, will accept the award and then return to Cooperstown to be recognized during the induction ceremonies on Sept. 8.

Ballplayers climb the ladder from the bottom to reach the top of the sport. Montgomery followed the same path in his Phillies front office career. His pro debut came as a member of the ticket office sales staff in 1971, the year Veterans Stadium opened. From there he became the director of sales, marketing director, executive vice president (1981), chief operating officer (1992), and president and chief executive officer (1997), and acquired an ownership stake in the franchise.

Under his leadership as president and CEO, the Phillies enjoyed one of the longest sustained periods of success in franchise history from 2007 to 2011 – five consecutive National League East titles, two National League pennants and the 2008 World Series championship.

He kept score of every game, home and away. If he didn’t watch a road game, he would tape it and update his scorebook.

In 2004, the Phillies opened two new ballparks within a couple of months, Bright House Networks Field in Clearwater, Fla., and Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Montgomery spearheaded the construction of both.

He advanced many community service efforts for the Phillies, including helping raise more than $19 million for the ALS Association of Greater Philadelphia, the official charity of the team. Montgomery worked closely with Phillies Charities, Inc., the official charitable arm of the organization, to provide support for other nonprofit organizations in the Philadelphia area and the communities of the Phillies’ minor league affiliates.

He said, “We’re not the Phillies, we’re the Philadelphia Phillies. You can’t control the Phillies because that’s the team. We can control who we are as an organization in the town. We can control the Philadelphia part. And that’s what I believe is important.”

To everyone, he wanted to be called David. Likewise, he knew every employee by their first name, including scouts and player development personnel not based in Philadelphia. He made it a point to visit every minor league affiliate every summer and knew first names there too.

Montgomery was also a pillar in Major League Baseball, serving on MLB’s Executive Council, Business and Media Committee, Labor Policy Committee and Competition Committee. He was admired and respected by everyone – other owners, the Commissioner and his staff, players, umpires and the MLBPA. That is rare.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said, “Nobody says a bad word about David for one reason and that is David never says a bad word about anybody.”

Montgomery was diagnosed with cancer in the summer of 2014. He relinquished his position as the organization’s leader, assuming the role of chairman in January 2015 while undergoing extensive treatment. He didn’t slow down, representing the club at civic functions, spending time in spring training, at Citizens Bank Park, checking in with former colleagues who had retired and attending a wedding in Houston for a son of a friend with the Cleveland Indians. And he danced with the bride.

During spring training of 2018, the large indoor training facility at Carpenter Complex in Clearwater was named the David P. Montgomery Baseball Performance Center during an emotional ceremony that took him by surprise. A fitting tribute.

“I believe that whatever capacity you work for us, you determine the Phillies family,” he said that March morning. “I believe that. As a family member, it’s our responsibility to treat you like family and get to know you the best we can. ... The best way to treat fans right is to treat the people you work with right.”

Montgomery passed away on May 8, 2019, at age 72.

The Buck O’Neil Award was established in 2007 to honour an individual whose efforts broadened the game’s appeal and whose character, integrity and dignity is comparable to the late O’Neil, who passed away in 2006 after eight decades of contributions to the game. O’Neil was honoured as the first recipient in 2008. Roland Hemond (2011), Joe Garagiola (2014) and Rachel Robinson (2017) are other winners.

The award is presented by the Board of Directors of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at its discretion, though not more frequently than every three years.

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Larry Shenk was the Phillies former director of public relations (1964-2007) and vice-president of alumni relations (2008-2015).

Some numbers for “The Baron” during his 51 years with the Phillies: 8,131 games (4,088-4,043), 94 playoff games (48-46), five NL Pennants, two World Championships, 16 managers, six general managers and 833 players. He was presented the 2007 Dallas Green award for Special Achievement.