Daulton's new message has nothing to do with baseballBY PAUL HAGENKnight Ridder NewspapersCLEARWATER, 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 most people see it," Daulton, 44, told the Philadelphia Daily News Thursday 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 Thursday 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 three 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 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 post-baseball 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 four or five 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 four 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 Thursday. "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 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 Thursday.
"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.
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 most people see it," Daulton, 44, told the Philadelphia Daily News Thursday 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 Thursday 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 three 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 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 post-baseball 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 four or five 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 four 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 Thursday. "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 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 Thursday.
"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.
