From Phillies icon to ‘time traveler’: Darren Daulton’s family believes his struggles and cancer were linked to the Vet’s turf
In 1997, Daulton found a storybook close to his career: He won a World Series as a late-season addition to the Florida Marlins, then retired. In 2013, Daulton was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. Surgeons removed two tumors, and Daulton announced that he wasSix former Phillies — Daulton, Tug McGraw, John Vukovich, David West, Johnny Oates, and Ken Brett — have died from glioblastoma. All of them spent parts of their careers playing at Veterans Stadium, which was demolished in 2004.
She recently retained Robert Bilott, a lawyer with the Taft law firm in Cincinnati, who has spent much of the last 24 years exposing, through litigation, the risks that PFAS pose to the environment and to human health. In the mid-Ohio valley, Bilott has secured more than $750 million in compensation for residents whose water supplies were contaminated with PFOA, a type of forever chemical, released by DuPont.
The pervasive forever chemicals are in an array of products, from turf and nonstick cookware to firefighting gear and food packaging. While the danger of drinking PFAS-contaminated water has been established, experts say that there aren’t sufficient data to fully understand the potential risks of inhaling chemicals or getting them on the skin from repeated contact with playing surfaces.
“We know something is wrong here. But none of us are scientists. As time goes on, now it’s like, OK, we know there is more to this. We know the chemicals are bad. But why is it just targeting certain individuals?”Daulton was not a household name in 1980, when the Phillies drafted him in the 25th round of the June amateur draft. The skinny 18-year-old from Arkansas City, Kan. — population 13,201 — was no phenom-in-the-making, like Darryl Strawberry, who’d been selected with the No.
Christenson noticed in Daulton a willingness to show teammates compassion and affection, a trait often in short supply among competitive, self-conscious athletes. “If Darren liked you,” Christenson said, “heDaulton had a brief taste of the majors in 1983 — two games, three at-bats, one hit. That same year, in the June draft, the Phillies selected Kevin Ward, an outfielder from the University of Arizona who’d once been a two-sport standout at Central Bucks High School West.