To put Darren Daulton’s career with the Phillies in context, to understand and appreciate the affection people felt for him then and the sorrow they feel now after his death Sunday, you have to put the 1993 Phillies in context.
There is no untethering Daulton from that team. Yes, his managers and teammates treasured his leadership and toughness. Yes, there is a generation of women for whom Daulton, with his resemblance to the best-looking bouncer at the local honky-tonk, was their first and greatest celebrity crush. (It was a marvelous coincidence that the name of Patrick Swayze’s mullet-clad sensei in the 1989 cult classic Road House was “Dalton.