Diunte: Darren Daulton and Don Carman maintained a special relationship to the end
From SABR member Nick Diunte at The Sports Post on August 10, 2017:
In a long Major League Baseball career, one might have hundreds of players who they call teammates, but only a select few that they can call true friends once they throw their final pitch. Despite the bonding that occurs from traveling the country together for six months at a time with the goal of winning a World Series championship, as soon as they clean out their lockers, players often go their separate ways until it is time to return for 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.”
Read the full article here: https://thesportspost.com/mlb-exclusive-carman-remembering-daulton/
Originally published: August 10, 2017. Last Updated: August 10, 2017.