John Middleton said something really interesting last night as the Phillies unveiled updates to the New Era Team Store and Hall of Fame Club at Citizens Bank Park.

It was in response to the backlash over Harry the K’s being renamed in the left field deck and why the center field analog clock likely won’t be going back up after the All-Star Game.

"Well, you know, look, I get it. There's an emotion to that," Middleton said via On Pattison. "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."

"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.”

Allow to me to address a topic that’s received a ton of attention, and why I think the Phillies are now between a rock and a hard place.