A Catcher’s Power Unmasked : Phillies’ Daulton Is Having an All-Star Season After Surgery

Welcome to Darren Daulton’s left knee. There are no bones out of place. No chips floating around.

All things considered, it’s pretty quiet in here.

Daulton’s bat, however, is another story.

And don’t for a second think the two aren’t related.

During the off-season, the Phillie catcher had the fourth and fifth operations on his left knee, which had been a nuisance to him since it was hurt in a home-plate collision in 1986.

Daulton has 55 runs batted in, only two fewer than he has had in any of his previous seven major league seasons and good for second in the National League.

He has 12 home runs, equaling his personal best and putting him sixth in the league.

He has a .534 slugging percentage.

He is batting .290.

“It’s amazing for a catcher to have the kind of stats he’s had,” said Jim Fregosi, the Phillie manager.

Daulton probably will be the starting catcher in the All-Star game on July 14 in San Diego because of an injury to Padre catcher Benito Santiago, who is leading the fan voting.

Daulton explains the offensive surge in two words: “My health.”

He is injury-free. Finally.

Despite a bodybuilder’s physique that makes him look indestructible, Daulton has made six appearances on the disabled list. Besides the knee problems, he has had a strained right shoulder, in 1985, and a broken hand, in 1988.

Then there was the accident last season.

On May 6, 1991, Daulton, 30, was riding home from John Kruk’s bachelor party with Len Dykstra, who was intoxicated. A police reconstruction of the accident indicated that Dykstra was speeding.

The car skidded off the road and slammed sideways into two trees. Doctors said the two were lucky to be alive.

“You appreciate life a little more (after an accident like that),” Daulton said. “It puts things in perspective and lets you realize how special a gift life is.”

Daulton suffered only a broken left eye socket and bruises. Later that season, however, he had stiffness in his neck and upper back, residual effects of the accident.

Daulton tried to come back two weeks after the accident, but had to go back on the disabled list a week later.

“I put myself on the DL because I realized I wasn’t helping the team,” he said. “I couldn’t throw. I couldn’t hit.”

He came back from the accident-related injuries on June 19, but then his knee bothered him again. He played his last game Sept. 6. On Sept. 10, he had arthroscopic surgery to remove bone chips.

Since then, Daulton’s medical record has been clean. But the surgeons aren’t totally responsible for Daulton’s condition.

“I spent a lot of time in the gym . . . rebuilding myself,” he said.

Teammate Wally Backman has seen it.

“Darren Daulton doesn’t have to work as hard as he does, but he does,” Backman said. “All the credit for him being the kind of player he is goes to him. He made himself that way.”

Said Daulton: “If I wouldn’t have (worked out so hard during the off-season) and I’d broken down, I would have said, ‘I could have done more and maybe I wouldn’t have broken down.’ But I’ve already alleviated that. When you’ve had injuries like I have, you have to maintain yourself to be able to play.”

A look at Daulton’s upper body reveals the source of his power. His average, however, comes from a new approach to hitting.

Simply, Daulton doesn’t try to pull every pitch anymore.

“I’ve got a lot better stroke up here than I’ve had for a while,” the left-handed batter said. “I’m just taking what I’m given. If (the pitch) is outside, I go the other way.”

Denis Menke, the club’s hitting instructor, said he and Daulton worked on the new swing during spring training. The results were so good--.350 and six home runs in Florida--that Daulton came back to Philadelphia trying too hard to show off his new stroke, Fregosi said. Daulton was five for 38 (.131) on April 21.

At that point, it looked as if it might be another season of frustration for Daulton, who joked that he had played amid boos so often that “it got pretty comfortable after a while.”

He was, after all, a .222 hitter one year into a three-year, $6.75-million contract.

“He’s not been appreciated in the city of Philadelphia,” Fregosi said. “They’ve always been very tough on him. He’s had a lot of verbal abuse. When he got back after a good spring, he tried to do too much.”

But Menke and Fregosi straightened out his swing again and since April 22, he has batted .328. He led the National League in June with eight home runs and 23 RBIs.

“This is really the first year Dutch has performed well offensively on a consistent basis,” Backman said. “I think his knees were a real problem, and it didn’t show how much until now, when he’s finally free of the pain.”

What makes Daulton’s production more impressive is that he has done it as a catcher. The only catchers to lead the National League in RBIs were All-Stars: Roy Campanella, who led the league in RBIs in 1953 with 142; Gary Carter, who tied for the league lead in 1984; and Johnny Bench, in 1970 and ’74.

Now Daulton might join them, at least as an All-Star.

“I always thought that if I had my health, I’d be where I am,” he said.