After Darren Daulton died of brain cancer on Sunday, fans were reminded once again that the same malady had struck former Phillies Tug McGraw, John Vukovich, and Johnny Oates.
All four played for the team during the Veterans Stadium era. Coincidence?
In 2013, when Daulton first announced his illness, the Inquirer analyzed the numbers for all 533 men who played for the Phillies between 1971 and 2003. The result: the rate of brain cancers in that group was roughly triple the rate of the deadly disease for the overall adult male population.