Dr. Anthony Fauci believes there is a ‘pretty good chance’ that fans will be able to attend MLB games in 2021 provided that the rate of Covid-19 cases continues to drop.
The chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden appeared on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight podcast on February 19th and said: “We could have people in the stands, maybe not right next to each other”.
A small number of fans were able to attend some games last season, and other major American sports leagues have been able to let some people in at a reduced capacity.
With the Covid-19 vaccine still in its early stages of being implemented across the country, the hope is that more baseball fans will be allowed in as the situation improves.
The season is scheduled to start on April 1st with all 30 teams set to play. ESPN will be showing live coverage of the Toronto Blue Jays @ New York Yankees at 1:05 p.m. ET, and that will be followed by the World Series champions Los Angeles Dodgers kicking off their title defense at Coors Field against the Colorado Rockies.
Part three of the quadruple header sees the Washington Nationals host the New York Mets, and the action concludes in LA as the Angels welcome the Chicago White Sox to Angel Stadium.
The Dodgers are the favorites to win the World Series for the second year in succession, with most of the best betting sites offering odds of +350 on the National League West outfit.
Next in the betting is the Yankees who lost the American League Division Series to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2020 but are +550 to bounceback and win a 28th World Series crown.
The San Diego Padres look absolutely stacked this year and it is no surprise to see them priced as a +900 third-favorite.
Last week, shortstop Fernando Tatis committed his future to the Padres with a whopping 14-year, $340 million contract. All-Star pitcher Yu Darvish was also acquired from the Chicago Cubs, adding to an already impressive roster.
The Atlanta Braves have no shortage of star power themselves, and after three straight National League East division titles, they are expected to go deep again with odds of +1200 to win the World Series.
Both the New York Mets and Chicago White Sox are also in the +1200 range, while the Minnesota Twins are as big as +2000 with some online sportsbooks.
Despite winning the American League in 2020, the Tampa Bay Rays are +2500 to go one better this year and are +900 to repeat their AL success. There are question marks over their ability to repeat what they achieved last term, especially with so many other American League teams breathing down their neck.
The Toronto Blue Jays are among those that many believe could mount a challenge this year, and they are +2000 for the World Series.
Each four-card box comes with a hefty $180 price tag, guaranteeing one encased autograph. The 100-card base set (see checklist here) contains almost 40 rookies including 2020 American League Rookie of the Year, Kyle Lewis. If the base cards weren't scarce enough, they all come with a variety of serial numbered parallels, sure to keep the player collectors busy search for these rare gems.
Autographs
The signer list for 2020 Topps Chrome Black Baseball is impressive, boasting Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, and Mariano Rivera, alongside top stars Mike Trout, Ronald Acuña, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. The box provided for this review yielded this Patrick Corbin gold autograph #/50.
2020 Topps Chrome Black Patrick Corbin Gold Autograph / Topps
Box Break Video
Head over to our YouTube channel to check out our 2020 Topps Chrome Black Baseball box break, along with our archive of baseball interviews.
Bob Oldis only played in seven games during his 1953 rookie season with the Washington Senators, yet one almost perfect game stands out in his mind nearly 70 years later.
On June 25, 1953, Oldis was in the starting lineup against the St. Louis Browns. Making only his second major league start, he played flawlessly. He went 3-3 at the plate with an RBI, and threw out the lone baserunner who dared to steal that day.
Most rookies would have been elated with that type of performance, but something about that game didn't sit right with the young catcher. With the Senators down 3-1 in the bottom of the 9th inning, Oldis was due to bat third in the inning.
Pitching in relief for the Browns was the ageless Satchel Paige. Undaunted by his presence, the first two batters were able to get on base with a walk and a single. This set the stage for Oldis, who was swinging a hot bat that day, to be the hero ... or so he thought.
As he approached the top steps of the dugout, Oldis represented the winning run. After battering starter Harry Breechen for three hits, the tap on the shoulder from manager Bucky Harris wasn't what he expected. Instead of words of encouragement, Harris let him know outfielder Carmen Mauro would be taking his place at the plate.
Dejected, Oldis returned to the dugout to watch Mauro hit a pop-up to third base, and Gil Coan finish the game by hitting into a 4-6-3 double play. He never was able to test himself against Satchel Paige in the majors, as he was sent down a short time afterwards.
When the 93-year-old was reached recently via a letter to his Arizona home, I asked if he was upset with Harris' decision to remove him for a pinch-hitter against Paige.
"Yes!" Oldis wrote.
He later had his chance to face Paige in the minor leagues during the 1958 season when he played for the Richmond Virginians and Paige hurled for the Miami Marlins; however, seven decades later it is the meeting they didn't have that stands out in his memory.
Topps give a chromium upgrade to the Allen and Ginter baseball card series with the 2020 Topps Allen and Ginter Chrome Baseball set. The 300 card set features an array of current stars, legends, and pop culture icons that annually draw a wide range of collectors to the set.
2020 Topps Allen And Ginter Chrome Base Set and Parallels
The chrome finish gives the Allen and Ginter cards a premium look, making for an attractive play on the original set.
Produced in limited quantities as compared with the regular 2020 Topps Allen and Ginter Baseball set, Topps mixes in colored refractors and rare autographed cards to spice up the action.
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter Chrome Chris Paddack Green Parallel
Topps has also taken the inserts and made them mini versions, which include parallels of the entire set (these have refractors too), as well as the Booming Cities, Buggin Out, and Safari Sights sets.
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter Chrome Baseball Box Break
2020 Topps Allen and Ginter Chrome Baseball Autographs
The autographs are the toughest to chase, averaging one per case. The 29 signers for the set include the recently deceased Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan, Derek Jeter, Ronald Acuna Jr., and Mike Trout.
Coming in around $180 per box, some might find the price is a little heavy; however, the cards really pop and the lure of pulling a rare autograph might just be enough for collectors to take a shot on a box.
Alfaro played at the College of the Canyons before transferring to San Diego State University in 1983. His steady defensive play attracted the attention of the United States Olympic Team and coach Rod Dedeaux. He batted .389 in five games for Team USA in 1984. Topps gave him an iconic card in their 1985 set, which also included Mark McGwire's famed Team USA card.
Flavio Alfaro - 1984 USA Olympic Team
The Atlanta Braves drafted Alfaro in the fourth round of the 1984 MLB Draft. After batting .193 in one season with their Class A team in Durham, he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers with Rick Cerone for future Hall of Famer Ted Simmons. During the offseason, he had a dispute with Brewers management over the minor league level where he would be placed. Instead of accepting their assignment, Alfaro retired. He became the first player from the 1984 USA Olympic team to retire from professional baseball.
After his baseball career, he worked as a salesman and farmer in Sacramento.
I am saddened to hear about the passing of Flavio Alfaro. He was a great teammate. I have great memories from that summer of 1984. RIP Flavio https://t.co/t9lfhK0P6D
Hank Aaron (l.) and Davey Johnson (r.) with Bowie Kuhn
Davey Johnson spent three glorious seasons alongside Hank Aaron on the Atlanta Braves from 1973-1975. Playing with Aaron as he surpassed Babe Ruth’s home run record, Johnson witnessed many of the hardships Aaron faced as he pursued the historical mark.
Watching Aaron chase baseball's cherished milestone, Johnson also secured his own place in the record books alongside the future Hall of Famer. In 1973 along with Darrell Evans, they all reached the 40 home run plateau, becoming the first trio of teammates to accomplish the feat in the same season.
Even though Johnson was a three-time All-Star and World Series champion with the Baltimore Orioles, he soaked up Aaron's lessons in their time together. He credited Aaron, who died this week at 86, for teaching him how to hit one of the nastiest pitches in baseball.
“Playing with Henry Aaron and [I watched] him really make the game look easy,” Johnson said during a 2010 interview. “Henry hit whenever he wanted to. I saw so many times things he would do that just were impossible to do. He taught me how to hit a left-hander’s slider off the plate [inside] fair. He did it all the time. … Most normal human beings with the ball slider in, you have to hit it over the dugout over there, but he would be able to hit it fair.”
After Aaron seized his place as MLBs all-time home run leader in 1974, the Braves usually rested him after flying to the West Coast. Johnson recalled how the legend made an exception from his rest day after he read some incendiary remarks by a opposing rookie pitcher.
“We were going to San Francisco from Atlanta,” he said. “When [we] traveled all night, Henry wouldn’t play the next day.
“Well the next day, he read the paper and a guy named [John] 'Count' Montefusco said in the paper, ‘Why I gotta face this Atlanta club? I’d rather face a good hitting club.’ Henry went to [Eddie] Mathews and said, ‘I’m in the lineup, I’ve gotta teach this guy a lesson.’ He had a wicked slider. I remember two guys were on. Henry’s up, first inning, he looked for his best pitch. He threw him a low and away slider and Henry hit it over the left field wall and came in and said, ‘I had to teach that kid something.’”
During the 1958-59 Cuban Winter League season, Lasorda’s 8-3 record helped propel Almendares to the championship. They dominated in the Caribbean Series, going 5-1 with their pitching staff completing five of the six games. Lasorda was the lone starter not to go the distance, throwing 3.1 scoreless innings against Panama.
While Almendares’ near-flawless championship would have been the highlight of any baseball season, another event during the 1958-59 campaign dominated anything that happened on the baseball field.
On New Year’s Eve in 1958, one American baseball player noticed there was an uncomfortable quiet during the day. As John Goryl rode to the ballpark with Cienfuegos teammate Bob Will, there was an eerie silence on the road.
“We were driving into Havana,” Goryl said during a 2011 interview. “We lived eight or nine miles outside of the city. We were driving down this main thoroughfare, and it was New Year’s Day. We were driving down the highway and not a soul in site. No traffic. All the windows when we got close to town were boarded up, curtains were down, and shutters were down.”
When they arrived at the stadium, his Cuban teammates quickly updated Goryl on what was happening. There was a drastic change coming.
“When we got to the ballpark, all of the Cuban ballplayers were gathered in one corner in the ballpark,” he said. “I took Pedro [Ramos] aside and he told me, ‘They think Batista left the country, and Castro will be coming in.’ I asked, ‘Are we gonna play?’ He said, ‘It doesn’t look like it, but they haven’t made that announcement.’ About 30 minutes later, an announcement was made, and we would be told when we would be able to play again.”
With the inevitable change of power from Fulgencio Batista to Fidel Castro, chaos ensued. It was a long ride back to their protected beach compound at Club Náutico where the foreign players stayed.
“All hell broke loose when we left that ballpark,” he said. “People tore down parking meters to get money, looting, and everything else.”
Goryl thought his family was safe at the compound; however, one American player thought otherwise. He couldn’t believe his eyes when he looked out his window and saw Tommy Lasorda out front armed with a rifle.
“We were living in a compound that was completely surrounded by water with guards,” he said. “I had a wife who had a small baby and was pregnant. I looked out the window one morning down to the street and there was Tommy walking around with a .22 rifle trying to protect everybody. It was the damndest thing I'd ever seen.”
As one of the foremost experts on the musical backbone of breakdancing culture, Richards is in high demand to spin at breaking events and competition across the globe. He offers his insight on what the greater public can expect during the Olympics, and why he hopes the IOC will consult with those deep rooted in the artform to preserve its culture while on full display for the masses.
A powerful baseball coach should have in-depth information about baseball. A baseball coach must possess specific characteristics that can help make a winning soccer team. The focus of the coach should also be on physical and technical specifications.
Coaching at every level includes much more than creating the lineup, hitting fungos, or coaching third base.
Let’s look at a few characteristics and skills that a successful coach should possess.
1- Experienced and Knowledgeable
A baseball coach acts as an instructor and possesses expert knowledge of the sport. The coach should help players improve their skills to maximize the team's ability to win.
Extensive knowledge of the game is imperative for a baseball coach. The coach should be able to explain basic rules to rookies, while also being able to provide information that is more complex to advanced players.
The baseball coach should teach players to stay low and make quick transitions from the glove to the throwing hand instead of teaching them to stay in front of ground balls.
A successful baseball coach possesses intelligence and an understanding of the adjustments needed to win games, and they watch the action closely and consider all angles. The coach observes the opposing batters hit the ball and makes changes in the defense accordingly.
2- Leadership
A baseball coach should have leadership qualities. The coach should motivate players to stay positive, fair, patient, sincere, concerned, and honest to succeed.
The baseball coach should also communicate effectively and display credibility, competence, respect, and authority. Clear communication is a good leadership quality. It means defining goals, giving direct feedback, reinforcing the key messages, and acknowledging success.
Apart from being a good communicator, leadership quality also includes having a compassionate ear, welcoming the athletes’ comments, questions, and input. The effective baseball coach actively seeks out information from players and creates a positive environment by encouraging players to present their ideas and thoughts to the coach.
3- Organizer and Time Management Expert
A great baseball coach gives players a pre-game, post-game, and off-season schedule to ensure that players give their best on the field.
The effective coach clearly states a code of conduct for players, and if violations occur, discipline should follow. A baseball coach should set a mild, prompt, and consistent discipline to effectively change behavior.
A good coach wants to make sure that they stay on top of diverse talent and never let the player get complacent between the lines. The coach has to manage the time of all of its players if a team has the goal to maintain its winning ways.
4- Strategical and Mechanical Genius
A great coach identifies a player’s specialty and mechanics as a hitter, infielder, pitcher, catcher, or outfielder. Every position has its unique mechanical criteria.
A hitter has a different approach to every pitch in the count. An infielder has a spot to cover and a stance to emulate based on outs, pitch count, and situation. An outfielder should have a perfect catch and throw mechanics to be able to make those plays to a base or the cut-off.
Baseball is a game of repetition in which a coach needs to see a flaw in skill sets and mechanics of a player and fix it. For example, a great coach looks for whether or not a pitcher is staying tall, balanced, gliding outward, and directly toward the catcher. It helps advance the player into the type of contributor he or she expects to become.
5- Staff Motivator
To become an efficient baseball coach, the mentor should produce activities inside the baseball workout to help motivate players to accomplish better in each game. The coach has to remind players why they wished to learn baseball and develop a winning staff.
The coach who displays a positive attitude and enthusiasm for the sport and the players can generate the desire in a player to excel in the team. While motivating a player, a good coach stresses trying to reach performance goals, not outcome goals.
6- Talent Scout and Evaluation
Evaluation of players, in the beginning, is crucial to advance through minor leagues to Major League Baseball.
Baseball success requires teamwork. Therefore, a baseball coach should evaluate players and build a team by spotting skilled players during high school tryouts, college recruiting visits, and pro scouting trips.
While one basketball player might take 30 to 40% of the team's shots, baseball teams count on all nine batters in a lineup. Therefore, a successful coach looks for ways to build a team of players with good hand-eye coordination, strong arms, fast hands and feet, and outstanding core strength. Strong-armed players are usually good pitchers, and tall and strong players serve as the team’s power hitter.
Final Thoughts
The key to becoming a great baseball coach is to have years of knowledge and experience as a player that results in earning your team's respect. Besides, it is crucial as a baseball coach to build and maintain positive relationships with your players.
A successful coach runs the team firmly and exhibits good character and even-handed, even-tempered treatment of each player.
Onyx Authenticated brings their third series to their 2020 Onyx Vintage Baseball release this year with its 2020 Onyx Vintage Baseball Extended Edition set. Each four card box guarantees two on-card autographs and two base cards.
Greg Modica thought his six-year minor league career was over when he tore his rotator cuff in 2006 while pitching for the Long Island Ducks. He spent the next 14 years molding New York City ballplayers to follow his lead on the mound, putting away any dreams he had of returning to the mound.
Growing up in the 1980s, Olympian and professional beach volleyball star Nick Lucena poured through packs of baseball cards looking for his favorite players. At the time, Ken Griffey Jr.'s 1989 Upper Deck rookie card was the must-have card for any Gen X's collection. That card's demand put the sports card manufacturer's name at the forefront in an era where Topps previously dominated.
Nick Lucena 2020 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions / Upper Deck
Fast forward three decades later, little did Lucena imagine he would be in Upper Deck set alongside Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Wayne Gretzky; however, if you look closely at the 2020 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions set, you will see Lucena mixed in with sport royalty.
Below is our box break of 2020 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions where we not only pulled Lucena's rookie cards, but also a host of stars, including a special autograph and relic card.
Oster made his major league debut in 1954 with the Philadelphia Athletics after they pulled him from the Long Island sandlots.
“Two nights later I was down in Philadelphia,” he said in my Forbes column earlier this year. “I threw to one of the coaches [Augie Galan]. He said, ‘Take your time, and throw easy.’ After 15 minutes he told me to throw harder. I threw a little harder, and he said, ‘Okay, let's see what you got!’ I threw a fastball to him and he fell on his back. He came up laughing like hell. I can still see it. He said, ‘Let's have that once more.’ He called [manager] Eddie Joost and said, ‘Eddie, you have to see this!’ They signed me right there and put me on the roster.”
Bartolo Colón still has hopes of returning to the majors leagues. At 47, and with labor negotiations at a stand still, his chances are as good as Vegas bookmakers trying to set the odds to win the World Series.
According to SBD, "The second-tier favorites have generally gotten longer with the MLB planning to play a shortened, 80-game season with an expanded playoff field. Fewer games means greater likelihood for unexpected outcomes."
In the latest Baseball Happenings Podcast episode, Stahl discussed how the rookie author was able to link up with Colón for his "big league" publishing debut. During the 18-minute interview, he tells some of his favorite stories from the book, while also explaining how this venture has validated his transition from a New York City high school English teacher to author during an unprecedented pandemic.
As spring training emerged in 1994, one manager would be provided with the task of guiding the Seattle Mariners’ highly regarded first round draft pick Alex Rodriguez into the ranks of professional baseball. Mariners general manager Woody Woodward realized the importance of having a seasoned veteran to help the highly touted prospect navigate the nuances of the system. He bestowed that honor to Carlos Lezcano, a former major league outfielder, who played under Woodward’s watch when he was the head coach at Florida State University.
“When they made the rosters and we met before spring training started, I knew there was a good chance that he would start with me,” Lezcano recalled via telephone. “They gave me a lot of responsibility to have the number one draft pick playing for me.”
Alex Rodriguez / Carlos Lezcano 1994 Appleton Foxes Pro Cards / Author's Collection
Lezcano immediately noticed Rodriguez’s physical gifts during their first spring training encounter. He had a presence on the field that was unparalleled by your typical 18-year-old fresh out of high school.
“The first thing that impressed me was his size—how strong he was, his coordination, and his ability to do things at a young age with that kind of body,” he said. “He had so much talent.”
With Rodriguez oozing potential out of every inch of his six-foot-three frame, Lezcano directed Rodriguez in the ways of carrying himself like a major league ballplayer. This education included navigating the hordes of press that ensued, preparing him for the intense scrutiny that would follow him for the remainder of his career.
“The main thing I had to do with him was help with the media,” he recalled. “He was very mature and he knew how to talk to the press. Everywhere we went, they wanted to talk to him all the time. I had to tell the reporters to interview him the first day we were there and then on the last day. We usually played a four-game series, so we had to give him a break from the press, as it would have been too much for him to be talking to the press every day. I think that helped him. We had him concentrate on his field work and his play on the field. That’s something I had to deal with that I never had to deal with before, or since.”
While Rodriguez showed poise for a teenager dealing with the media, some of his actions still reminded his skipper that he was handling someone who was trying to figure out how to manage his life away from home. Lezcano recounted a time where the mere threat of telling Rodriguez’s mother about his close calls with being late to the ballpark was enough to straighten him out.
“He was never late, but he was cutting it close a couple of times,” he said. “His mother was going to come to visit him to see him play. I told him, ‘You’re a professional baseball player, you’ve gotta be here sooner or I’m going to tell your mother.’ By just saying that to him he was always there earlier and did whatever he had to do. He had a lot of respect for his mother. You could see he was raised the right way.”
Rodriguez played 65 games for Appleton, batting .319 with 14 home runs and 16 stolen bases in 1994, playing barely half the season with Lezcano before he was whisked up the minor league ladder en route to the major leagues. Looking back, Lezcano feels that the minor leagues were a mere formality for Rodriguez and that if the situation presented itself out of spring training, that he could have bypassed the minor leagues entirely.
“I’ve been in baseball 40 years, that kid could have played in the big leagues out of high school,” he said. “With the right situation and the right manager, ability wise he could have played in the big leagues. [Most impressive was] his ability to take instruction into the game so quickly; he’s the fastest guy I’ve ever had [to make adjustments]. Right away he just took it into the game, it was unbelievable.
“At 18, he would hit balls 400 feet. One time I’m coaching third base and he hit a triple and he slides into third base. The guy who caught the ball was 23-24 years old and Alex looked like the man and the other guy looked like the young kid. He was that dominant of a player.”
Fresh off of coaching the Liberal Blue Jays against Roger Clemens’ team of former major leaguers in the National Baseball Congress World Series, Lezcano shared how working with the college-aged players reminded him of how advanced Rodriguez was for his age.
“It’s like young people play the game too fast,” he said. “They get excited and they play fast. He always played the game under control and kind of slowed the game down. That’s what you want to do with young players. Slow the game down, have options in your mind. He was like that from the beginning. That’s part of the reason he was so good, his ability and way of slowing the game down at a young age was very unusual.”
As the Yankees sent Rodriguez off the field with an epic farewell, his first professional manager wondered if it was truly the last time that his prodigy would set foot on major league soil. He is holding out that another club will give Rodriguez a chance to reach the 700 home run milestone.
“I hope he latches on with someone else,” he said.
“The guy’s got 696 home runs. I just hope he gets a chance to hit 700 somewhere. Alex had his things throughout his baseball career, but I think way down he’s got a good heart and he’s a good man. I just hope that this is not the end of him. He hasn’t been treated fairly. I don’t know the whole details, but I hope he gets another chance to get that 700.
“I only have good things to say about Alex. He’s behaved like a true professional. I’m glad that people are taking care of showing that side of him instead of the negative stuff; talking about that raw talent, that innocent face, and that kid that was worried about what his mother would say if I said something to her.”
* This was originally published for the now-defunct Sports Post on August 15, 2016.
Jeff Frye was a fan favorite during his eight major league seasons with the Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox, Colorado Rockies, and Toronto Blue Jays, but little did he expect to gain massive social media fame almost 20 years after he last put on the uniform. After a series of videos where he is spoofing hitting instruction methods he's seen online, including the one below which has received 1.4 million views as of this writing, Frye's "She gone!" has become a cult cry among his fans and retired MLB peers.
Frye joined the Baseball Happenings Podcast
to discuss how he's handled the unexpected attention, and how he hopes
his videos will help young baseball players and their families become
better informed consumers when selecting a hitting coach.
During the 45-minute Q&A, Balukjian explained his crazy travels trying to track down Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk, getting batting lessons from World Series champ Rance Mulliniks, and his conflict peeling away layers from his baseball hero, Don Carman.
Throughout a long Major League Baseball career, one might have hundreds who they call teammates, but only a select few they can call true friends. Despite bonding while traveling the country for six months trying to win a World Series championship, as soon as teammates clean out their lockers, they often go their separate ways until spring training.
With the platitudes expressed for Darren Daulton in the wake of his passing, one of his teammates shared how a union formed before their first major league game together persisted through Daulton's final hours. Don Carman, a former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher who broke into the majors with Dalton in 1983, explained the nature of their transcendental friendship.
“We had something special, because in baseball I have a lot of really good friends that I spent time with, [but] the day they stop playing, they go home and you never hear from them again,” Carman said via phone shortly after Daulton's death. “It happens all the time. … That's the rule. … He and I had an amazing friendship, a wonderful friendship, [we were] very close, and I loved him like mad. There's not a time where we wouldn't hug, kiss each other, and say, 'I love you,' because you knew you had something different.”
To understand just how their relationship started, go back to the 1983 season when the two were a battery for the Philadelphia Phillies Double-A team in Reading, Pennsylvania. After both had breakout seasons in the minors, the National League champion Philadelphia Phillies called them up when rosters expanded. Arriving in the heat of a pennant race, the pair watched as future Hall of Famers Steve Carlton, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, and Mike Schmidt worked at clinching the pennant. Finally, with the pennant in hand, manager Paul Owens inserted Daulton into the starting lineup on the next-to-last game of the 1983 season.
In the bottom of the 8th inning, Daulton scored the go-ahead run against the Pittsburgh Pirates, giving Owens the opportunity to summon Carman to seal the deal. The lefty spent most of the season as Reading's closer and he now was in the position to get a save in his major league debut. As a nervous Carman approached the mound, a familiar face greeted him with the right message to get him under control.
“I remember being scared to death,” he said. “Then he [Daulton] came out the mound and said something like, 'We made it. You and I made it. We're here, and we're playing in the big leagues.' I remember still being afraid, but at least I didn't have to worry about how to pitch and what I wanted to do because the guy knew me so well. And I did, I had a 1-2-3 inning. It was obviously my first outing, but it was as much as being comfortable with knowing that I didn't have to think; all I had to do, whatever he put down, I'm going to throw it because I couldn't think because I was so scared. I was the closer in Reading for the last three months of the season, so he knew me, what I wanted to do, and what made me effective, so I didn't have to worry about that.”
Just how Daulton helped to guide Carman in his debut, Carman noted that “Dutch” had a magnetism that drew his teammates to follow him. From the beginning of his career, Daulton had an uncanny ability to inspire that was evident across the league.
“The strange thing about him, everybody in baseball knows he was one of the most special baseball-type people—he was the consummate player and everybody looked up to him, even when he was 26-27, the 35-year-olds looked up to him," Carman said. “He was the leader of every team he was on. I've never met a better leader, just an amazing guy; he was like that in the minor leagues. He was a natural.”
Daulton made it a point to extend himself not only to his teammates, but to everyone around him who made the game run. Carman felt it was how “Dutch” treated those whose names did not show up in the box score that was a true testament to his character.
“It didn't matter if you were grounds crew or the owner of the team, everybody wanted to be around him and everybody felt special,” he said.“It was every person; it didn't matter who you were. If the owner of the team came over, he would walk over, grab him by the face with both hands and kiss him on the cheek. If it was the guys who just dragged the field and they walked by, 'Dutch' would do the same thing. It didn't matter who you were, you demanded his respect because he gave it to you, and everybody felt special.
“There's something about his personality that gave you this feeling that he really does care. This moment he cares about me, enough to pay attention to me, to listen to me, to smile at me, to make eye contact with me, and hear what I just said.”
Philadelphia's love affair with Dutch grew as his spirit and personality resonated with the Phillies faithful. The Phillies honored their leader when they inducted him into their Wall of Fame in 2010. Even amongst the of Hall of Famers, Carman's keen eye noted that in later years, Daulton stood out as the obvious fan favorite.
“When you go to the Wall of Fame in Philly, they call them all out on the field,” he said. “They always call him out last because they know he's going to get the biggest ovation every time. You're talking about Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt, who spent more time there and are in the Hall of Fame. People would cheer, but when he came out, the place would erupt. He even made fans feel special."
While Daulton stayed in the spotlight, he and Carman remained tight behind the scenes. They participated in each other's weddings while becoming confidants throughout tough times in their lives. They stuck together even when many walked away from Daulton when he released his controversial book, “If They Only Knew” in 2007.
“Throughout all three marriages, he and I talked because he knew he could trust me," Carman said. “He would come to me for advice through all of this, so we've become very close over the years. When he went through his bizarre time when he wrote the book [If They Only Knew], a lot of people didn't know how to respond; I didn't know how, but it wasn't by leaving him because I knew this person and something was wrong. It turns out he had a brain tumor. As soon as they removed the bulk of the brain tumor, the crazy behavior changed and he was back. It was amazing."
When Daulton's brain cancer recently took a turn for the worse, Carman dropped what he was doing to make the three-hour trip to Daulton's bed side. For the next two weeks, he made spending time with Dutch his main priority.
“I kind of put work on hold for the last two weeks because that's when he made a really downward turn,” he said. “I've been with him every other day for the past 15 days. He lives three hours away. I would drive up, see him, and leave [his wife] Amanda, her mother, and his parents. I would spend the day there, go to a hotel, and then come back see him, and then drive home. A couple of days later, I would do it again.”
Even in his final days, Daulton stayed true to form, mustering up whatever strength he had left to make Carman feel welcome. This time, Carman did most of the heavy lifting.
“Obviously it was difficult,” he said. “The last ten days, he couldn't talk, but he could listen, smile, and hug you with one arm as the right side was paralyzed. Since he could do that, I did the talking.”
Carman spent five hours with Daulton on the day he died. Speaking with him only two days later, Carman did his best to hold back tears while humbly expressing gratitude for being there one last time for his good friend.
“I'm just glad I could talk to him.”
* This article originally appeared in the now defunct Sports Post on August, 10, 2017.
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