Thursday, January 29, 2009
some baseball players
arren Arthur Daulton (born January 3, 1962 in Arkansas City, Kansas), nicknamed Dutch, is a former catcher in Major League Baseball best remembered for his years with the Philadelphia Phillies. He has been called the "Greatest Clubhouse Leader the Phillies ever had." He earned a World Series ring with the Florida Marlins in 1997. In more recent years, he has gained notoriety for his unconventional theories regarding human existence and time-travel.
Professional career
Daulton was drafted by the Phillies in the 25th round of the 1980 MLB draft. He was an all-star with the AA Reading Phillies in 1983.
On September 25, 1983, Daulton made his major league debut for the Phillies. Between 1983 and 1988 Daulton played sparingly, due much to the presence of all-star catchers Ozzie Virgil and Lance Parrish. Daulton became the Phillies' full time catcher in 1989.
1992-1993 seasons
Daulton's finest season came in 1992. That season, Daulton led the National League in runs batted in with 109. Daulton also finished in the top 10 in on base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, home runs, walks, runs created, and extra base hits. Daulton's impressive season earned him his first all-star appearance, the National League Silver Slugger award, and sixth place in National League MVP voting.
Daulton was one of the catalysts of the NL pennant winning 1993 Phillies. Although the Phillies lost the World Series, Daulton was again named an all-star, drove in more than 100 runs for the second consecutive season, and finished seventh in National League MVP voting. Daulton once again finished in the top 10 in on base percentage, runs batted in, walks, and extra base hits. Daulton also finished in the top 10 in times on base and intentional walks.
Injury problems
Unfortunately, knee injuries caught up with Daulton. In 1994, Daulton was on pace for his best season yet when he went down for the season. Through 67 games, Daulton was hitting .300 with 15 home runs and 56 RBI. Both his batting average and slugging percentage (.549) were career highs at the time of his injury.
By 1995, injuries had clearly taken a toll on Daulton's playing ability, and although he was named to his third all-star team, he played in only 98 games, and finished the year with just 9 home runs.
Daulton missed nearly the entire 1996 season due to injury, playing in just 5 games all year.
Trade to the Florida Marlins
In 1997, after 17 years with the organization, the Phillies traded Daulton to the Florida Marlins. By this time, Daulton's knee injuries had forced him to change positions. After playing half of the season in Philadelphia as a right fielder, the Marlins used Daulton as a first baseman and pinch hitter. Daulton put up respectable numbers in his final season, hitting .263 with 14 home runs, 63 RBI and 68 runs scored in just 395 at bats. After the Marlins won the crown, Daulton announced his retirement.
[edit]Career statistics
In 14 seasons, Daulton hit .245 with 137 home runs, 588 RBI and 511 runs scored in 1161 games.
Daulton was ranked as the 25th greatest catcher of all-time by Bill James in the 2003 edition of his Historical Baseball Abstract.
Legal problems
Vehicle-related charges
Daulton has been arrested several times on vehicle-related charges. He was arrested for DUI in Pinellas County, Florida in 1988, and his driver's license was suspended for a year after he refused to take a Breathalyzer test. His license was also suspended in the late '90s due to unpaid speeding tickets; he received at least five during that time period, including one for traveling over 100 miles-per-hour in a 65 zone. At approximately 1AM on May 7, 1991, Daulton was riding in the red Mercedes-Benz SL500 driven by teammate Lenny Dykstra. Traveling at high speed, they crashed into a tree in Radnor Township, PA after attending a bachelor party for teammate John Kruk. Dykstra suffered broken ribs, collarbone, and a broken facial bone while Daulton injured his eye and had a broken facial bone. According to Radnor Township police, Dykstra's blood alcohol content was .0179 at the time of the crash. While under his license suspension, he was involved in a single-vehicle accident on January 3, 2001, causing $20,000 worth of damage to his BMW sedan. He again refused to be tested, and was charged with DUI, driving with a suspended license, and failing to appear in court. Daulton claims the accident was the result of getting run off the road as a consequence of a business deal with ties to the FBI and the White House.
Exactly two years later, he was arrested again for driving with a suspended license and DUI, after again refusing to be tested for alcohol.
Domestic violence charges
Daulton was also arrested on domestic violence charges, accused of abusing his second wife Nicole, who subsequently filed for divorce. In 2004, he spent two months in jail in contempt of court after refusing to abide by the terms of a legal agreement related to the divorce.
Personal beliefs
Daulton holds a series of beliefs related to conspiracies, metaphysics, and numerology. He maintains that the universe is created and sustained by numerical synchronicities, and that all matter is charged with vibrational energy, which has escaped human perception because it is extradimensional in origin. He believes that those who are conscious of this energy can manipulate it to affect reality in different ways, such as altering the weather. He also believes that the pyramids and Mayan temples were created by a lost civilization, and that people with knowledge of the workings of the system will "ascend" at the conclusion of the Mayan calendar on Dec. 21, 2012, at 11:11 a.m. (Greenwich Mean Time), vanishing into a new plane of existence. [5] He recently claimed in a televised interview with ESPN that he has "skipped through time" and undergone "astral travel."
Daulton has authored a book on metaphysics and numerology, titled "If They Only Knew," published in 2007. In the book he discusses numerous aspects of metaphysics, referencing experts in the field, and his personal experiences.
Dock Phillip Ellis, Jr. (March 11, 1945 – December 19, 2008) was a Major League Baseball player who pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates, among other teams. His best season was 1971, when he won 19 games for the World Series champion Pirates and was the starting pitcher for the National League in the All-Star Game.
Beaning Reggie Jackson in the face in apparent retaliation for Reggie's monstrous home run off Ellis in the 1971 All-Star Game in Detroit.
June 12, 1970 no-hitter
No-hitting the San Diego Padres on June 12, 1970 despite being, as he would claim in 1984, under the influence of LSD throughout the course of the game. Ellis had been visiting friends in Los Angeles under the impression he had the day off and was still high when his girlfriend told him he had to pitch a game against the Padres that night. Ellis boarded a shuttle flight to the ballpark and threw a no-hitter despite not being able to feel the ball or clearly see the batter or catcher. Ellis claims catcher Jerry May wore reflective tape on his fingers which helped Ellis to see his target. Ellis walked eight, struck out six, and was aided by excellent fielding plays by second baseman Bill Mazeroski and center fielder Matty Alou. During the game, Ellis is reported to have commented to his teammates on the bench between innings that he was pitching a no-hitter, despite the superstition that discourages mentioning a no-hitter while it is in progress. Because the no-hitter was the first game of a double header, Ellis was forced to keep track of the pitch count for the night game.
As Ellis recounted it:
"I can only remember bits and pieces of the game. I was psyched. I had a feeling of euphoria. I was zeroed in on the (catcher's) glove, but I didn't hit the glove too much. I remember hitting a couple of batters and the bases were loaded two or three times. The ball was small sometimes, the ball was large sometimes, sometimes I saw the catcher, sometimes I didn't. Sometimes I tried to stare the hitter down and throw while I was looking at him. I chewed my gum until it turned to powder. They say I had about three to four fielding chances. I remember diving out of the way of a ball I thought was a line drive. I jumped, but the ball wasn't hit hard and never reached me."
The incident inspired the song "Dock Ellis" by indie rock singer Barbara Manning.
May 1, 1974 game against Cincinnati
Attempting to hit every batter in the Cincinnati Reds lineup on May 1, 1974. In an effort to prove a point to teammates, Ellis hit Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, and Dan Driessen in the top of the first. The clean-up batter Tony Perez avoided Ellis' attempts, instead drawing a walk, and after two pitches aimed at the head of Johnny Bench, Ellis was removed from the game by manager Danny Murtaugh. Ellis' box score for the game reads: 0 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 K.
May 5, 1972 macing incident in Cincinnati
Arguing with and being maced by a Riverfront Stadium security guard on May 5, 1972. The guard claimed Ellis did not identify himself and "made threatening gestures with a closed fist"; Ellis countered that he was showing his World Series ring as evidence of his affiliation with the Pirates.
On December 11, 1975, Ellis was traded to the New York Yankees along with Ken Brett and Willie Randolph in exchange for Doc Medich. Ellis went on to play for the Oakland Athletics, Texas Rangers, New York Mets then ended his career back in Pittsburgh. He finished with a lifetime record of 138-119 and an ERA of 3.46.
Ellis collaborated with future U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall on a book, Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball, which was published in 1976. Although Hall knew of the LSD incident, it was not included in the first edition of the book; Ellis was playing for the Yankees when the book was published, and Hall worried that George Steinbrenner would react negatively to such an admission.
Dock Ellis retired to Victorville, California and a career as a drug counselor. An alcoholic, he was diagnosed with cirrhosis in 2007, and was on the list for a transplant at the time of his death. ESPN.com reported on December 19, 2008, that Ellis had died at USC Medical Center in Los Angeles due to "a liver ailment."
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