Has Darren Daulton gone crazy?

[D'ohmer Simpson 0]

 

Daulton caught off base

The former Phillie has become advocate of 'metaphysics'

By PAUL HAGEN

hagenp@phillynews.com

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Let's get this out of the way right from the start: Darren Daulton knows some people are going to think he's weird. Out there. Maybe even nuts.

 

And that's all right.

 

The former All-Star catcher, one of the most popular Phillies players ever and the unquestioned leader of the 1993 World Series team, now spends his time trying to spread his message, and it has nothing to do with baseball.

 

It has to do with metaphysics - which he describes as anything beyond sight, smell, touch, sound and taste - living in different dimensions, reincarnation, out-of-body experiences, numerology. It has to do with the end of the world as we know it.

 

"I see life in a different perspective than I used to, in a way that's different from how most people see it," he said yesterday after finishing a round of golf in nearby Dunedin. "There's so much going on that we're not really aware of. Some people are privy to this. It's spoken of in the Bible. Some people are awakened to what's taking place.

 

"We only know what we can perceive with our five senses. I have been, for whatever reason, awakened to other realms that are achievable by all of us. All I want to do is try to convey to everyone what I have witnessed.

 

"I don't care if people believe me or not. If people want to take and run with it, fine. If they don't, that's fine, too."

 

This is a different Daulton from the one fans remember, stubbornly playing through the pain left by multiple knee surgeries.

 

This is a different Daulton from the sad news bulletins of yet another arrest, the in-progress divorce from his second wife, Nicole, and the personal memorabilia now up for bid on eBay.

 

He spoke yesterday just hours after a story about his beliefs was posted on Sports Illustrated's Web site. But these ideas have been percolating for years, thoughts he put down on paper while serving 3 months in jail last summer. He recently completed a 32,000-word manuscript he hopes to have published. Tentative title: "If They Only Knew."

 

At the time, it's what the Phillies used to say to each other as they unwound with a few beers in the trainer's room after games. It meant that fans had no idea what they went through to prepare physically and mentally for each game.

 

Now he's taking that concept deep.

 

Daulton, 44, said he first began to realize there was more going on than meets the eye late in the 1997 season, after he'd been traded to the Florida Marlins. He recalled getting the game-winning hit, an opposite-field line drive just inside third base against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

 

"That was the first time I realized it," he said. "I remember coming out of the stadium and I started crying. [Nicole] said, 'What's wrong? You just got the game-winning hit.' And I said, 'I didn't hit that ball. Something happened, but it wasn't me.' "

 

Daulton retired at the end of that season after helping the Marlins win the World Series. Some of his Phillies teammates went on to successful postbaseball careers. Lenny Dykstra runs a chain of successful carwashes and convenience stores in Southern California. John Kruk works for ESPN.

 

It was Daulton, who easily would have been voted Most Likely to Succeed, who seemed to drift.

 

He was considered a leading candidate to become the next Phillies manager after the 2000 season, but Larry Bowa got the job instead.

 

Around that time, he became more convinced the world was a more complex realm than most realized.

 

"It was 4 or 5 years [after that day in Wrigley Field] that I started seeing this other dimension," he said. "I saw [former Phillies manager] Lee Elia, my folks, my brother running on the beach. They were all much younger. But it was real."

 

It was also at that time that his personal life began to show up on the police blotter.

 

There was a horrendous car wreck on Interstate 75 outside Tampa in January 2001. He was arrested for drunken driving, but says that the truth is that he was intentionally run off the road because of a business deal with ties to the FBI and White House.

 

He was arrested in 2003 on a domestic-battery charge, which was followed by a charge that that he violated a domestic-violence injunction. The latter charge was dropped. In October of that year, he was arrested again for allegedly violating his probation on the DUI charge.

 

In July 2004, he was accused of missing a court hearing on the suspended-license charge and arrested again. Last April, he was picked up at Tampa International Airport for failure to appear in court on a probation violation.

 

His defense was that he had moved and hadn't received notice of the hearing, but the judge wasn't impressed. He served 4 months in jail and a rehab center.

 

"I'm basically carrying on with my life the same way I did before I went in," he said yesterday. "I will never agree as to why I went in. I never thought I'd go to jail over money with my wife. I would never have expected that."

 

Through it all, there have been natural rumors that he's broke. Those whispers gained momentum last week when an array of his memorabilia - bats, uniforms, autographs, even his trophy for leading the National League in RBI in 1992 - showed up on eBay, the online auction site.

 

Daulton has consistently maintained he is financially secure and repeated that yesterday.

 

"It's marital assets. I either pay cash or sell the stuff and give her half. I really don't care about that stuff," he said.

 

What he cares about these days is to get the word to people who are interested in hearing what he has to say.

 

If he had to boil it down to one sentence, it would be this: "We need to stop judging each other. Because every one of us is on a different path."

 

But there's more to it than peace and harmony. Daulton is convinced that the day of reckoning is coming soon. Specifically, on Dec. 21, 2012, at 11:11 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time, the chosen will simply vanish from this plane of existence.

 

"That will be the end of this dispensation," he said. "I really don't know how to explain it. I don't know what words to use so people won't think I'm goofy. But by Dec. 21, 2012 [the last day recorded on the Mayan calendar], people will have a pretty good idea. It's all about consciousness and love. We have the ability to create whatever we want. We're all made of energy."

 

And, he says, the speed at which that energy vibrates creates different dimensions.

 

That's a long way from one-for-a-fastball, two-for-a-curve. A long way from the sort of stuff that's normally discussed in clubhouses. A long way from the way most people view the world.

 

During Daulton's playing career, some called him Dutch. Some called him Bubba.

 

Now, some will call him crazy.

 

And that's all right, too.link

[NewbieJr 541]

I think a Dodo may be less crazy.

[TerrySilver 0]

loved watching him play when i was growing up, especially in '93, but the dude is off his rocker.

 

its also sad that in all my years growing up, i've only seen the phillies have 1 good year (i'm 25). pathetic.

 

 

btw, my fantasy bball team name right now is "Daultons Timemachine"

[D'ohmer Simpson 0]

its also sad that in all my years growing up, i've only seen the phillies have 1 good year (i'm 25). pathetic.

That might be sadder than the Daulton issue

[Electric Mayhem 35]

They should put him on the next Surreal Life with Tom Cruise

[phillybear 366]

I remember the first time I heard this story. When it was an episode on the X-Files.

[joneo 558]

Dec. 21, 2012, at 11:11 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time, the chosen will simply vanish from this plane of existence.

 

Crap, I already had other plans.

[D'ohmer Simpson 0]

They should put him on the next Surreal Life with Tom Cruise

[SmartassBoiler 0]

Did anyone see the ESPN special on him? I watched it when I was up the other night. The dude has seriously lost it.

[MurOh 1]

Did anyone see the ESPN special on him? I watched it when I was up the other night. The dude has seriously lost it.

 

 

I liked when they asked Kruk what he thought, said he's absolutely crazy but he still backs him.

[Cdub100 3,950]

There was another guy who everyone thought was crazy, but a select few. His name was Jesus.

 

Darren The Prophet Daulton

[Ilov80s 0]

I agree with everything he says, except the world ending in 2012. The part about not judging each other, dimensions existing outside of the realm of our senses that could inflence our life, the fact that we are all obviously masses of energy.

[SmartassBoiler 0]

we are all obviously masses of energy.

 

GIVE ME THE RED PILL

[Joe Carcuss 0]

Talk about a guy who made a career based on one good season......He was basically a journeyman backup type catcher until the Phillies '93 run. It was widely suspected that he and Lenny D. were juiced on steroids that season and that is why they began to break down in 94' and never came close to those numbers again.

 

Dutch had one good year out of the 10+ he played but was a local hero because of his good looks and crazy personality. It has been reported Dutch is everything from an alcoholic (3 DUIs), to a wife/woman beater, to drug addict (coke possession charges?). He is nuts but I personally don't feel bad for him at all! His life is a clear example of Karma. He's now paying for all of the cheating and lying he did years ago!

[D'ohmer Simpson 0]

It was widely suspected that he and Lenny D. were juiced on steroids that season and that is why they began to break down in 94' and never came close to those numbers again.

Link?

 

Lenny's hard playing skills took a toll on his body, especially his back.

[Franknbeans 46]

He likes to ride the Mission Space at Disney

[Gephardt69 0]

he spent umpteen years in philadelphia of his own free will... yes, he's crazy!

[Joe Carcuss 0]

Link?

 

Lenny's hard playing skills took a toll on his body, especially his back.

 

I don't really have time to dig up 12 year old links so you can take it or leave it but I think it is pretty comman knowledge among Phillies fans that those two were on something. Dutch gained about 25 pounds of muscle that off season and had by far his most prodcutive year and Lenny went from a skinny, base stealing guy who hit for average to looking like a professional body builder and jacking 400 foot home runs.

 

Considering we now know that 60% of the league was on steroids or uppers at that time, I not trying to single them out but merely point out that Dutch was basically a one hit wonder who rode that '93 miracle season into becoming a nationally known "star"..... Nothing more, nothing less.

[phillybear 366]

Darren Daulton > Barry Bonds.

[Joe Carcuss 0]

Darren Daulton > Barry Bonds.

 

Of course. Bonds is the all time biggest cheater in all of professional sports history! Not to mention he is a racist bully, a woman beater and general all around scum bag!

 

I can see why a guy like Dutch would juice up. He was getting older and wanted a chance to make it in the bigs. At least Dutch pretended to be a decent guy. He signed autographs, had beers with fans, etc... He has clearly paid the price both physically and other wise for what he did.

[frank 2,316]

Are any of his beliefs any dumber than believing that 2000 years ago a man died and came back to life and that if you don't do as he says you will spend eternity in a lake of fire?

[TommyGavin 790]

and he still has both of his testicles ( I presume )

[TerrySilver 0]

Talk about a guy who made a career based on one good season......He was basically a journeyman backup type catcher until the Phillies '93 run. It was widely suspected that he and Lenny D. were juiced on steroids that season and that is why they began to break down in 94' and never came close to those numbers again.

 

Dutch had one good year out of the 10+ he played but was a local hero because of his good looks and crazy personality. It has been reported Dutch is everything from an alcoholic (3 DUIs), to a wife/woman beater, to drug addict (coke possession charges?). He is nuts but I personally don't feel bad for him at all! His life is a clear example of Karma. He's now paying for all of the cheating and lying he did years ago!

 

wow, you are so wrong on so many levels.

 

journeyman? last i checked, a journeyman goes from team to team. daulton played his entire 14 career in one city, philly. he only played a half a season with the marlins (who won the WS that year) at the end of his career, when the phillies actually traded him to the fish. playing 99% of your career on one team is hardly a journeyman.

 

back up catcher? nope. he was the full time starter in philly from 89-97. unfortunately, he was injured often throughout his career.

 

one good year? actually, his best year was the year prior to their WS run in '93. in '92, with 80 runs, 27 HRs, 109 rbi's, and a .270 BA. are these numbers phenominal? not really, but in comparison to other catchers in the league at the time, they are more then above average.

 

not gonna argue with you about the roids. he may have done them or not. either way it wouldnt surprise me. but keep in mind that he was 32 after that '93 season, which is pretty much the age when the majority of catchers knees start to break down.

 

btw, he batted .389 and scored 7 runs in the world series with the marlins won in the final at bats of his career. if thats not clutch, i dont know what is.

 

 

bottomline, although his final stats arent eye poping, he was an above average catcher for many years for the phillies who didnt just have one fluke year like you suggest. compare his numbers to other catchers in his time and see for your self

[JT 137]

While watching Daulton's interview on "Real Sports", I immediately thought about the fact that, for part of his career, he caught Steve Carlton. For those unaware, Lefty gave a bizarre 1994 interview where he espoused some crazy, survivalist theories (see below). At the time, he reportedly lived in a metal-lined bunker, armed to the teeth.

 

"Carlton's election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994 (in his first year of eligibility) was marred by an incident weeks later. Ending his silence with the press, Carlton gave a rambling interview in Philadelphia Magazine from his mountainside compound in Colorado, where he claimed that AIDS was concocted by government scientists, that teacher's unions were part of an organized conspiracy to indoctrinate students, and that world affairs were controlled by twelve Jewish bankers in Switzerland. Most Phillies fans ignored his idiosyncratic political commentary, however, and attended his Cooperstown induction that summer.

 

St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, 2002 Gale Group."

 

Shortly prior to this episode, in late 1993, I encountered Carlton in an airport. After a couple minutes of firendly, idle chat (we had a mutual acquaintance), I asked about the vineyards that he owned during his time as a Phillie. His eyes bugged, he glared at me, hissed "I don't drink anymore!", and stormed away.

 

Must have been some interesting conversations on the mound between those two.