Warning: Much of this column is not objective. How can it be objective when one of the two players it is about wrote in his 1990 book that I was the reporter he missed the most following his 1988 retirement?
That man was Don Baylor, and now it’s my turn to miss him because he died in the early morning hours of Aug. 7. Darren Daulton died several hours earlier on Aug. 6.
I didn’t know Daulton, but I know more about what killed him than I know about the cause of Baylor’s death, which was multiple myeloma, a cancer formed by malignant plasma cells.
Of the at least eight former major leaguers who had glioblastoma tumors, Daulton lived the longest following diagnosis, but is four years anything to cheer about, especially when Daulton’s experience led to massive misunderstanding and misinterpretation of his condition.
On Feb. 19, 2015, Daulton tweeted news of his latest MRI, a test he had regularly so doctors could check on the results of his July 2013 operation he for the removal of not one but two glioblastoma tumors. Depending on the tumor, patients initially have an MRI every month, then every three months and every six months and if everything looks good, finally once a year.
“I’m incredibly blessed to have a clean scan,” Daulton tweeted, adding, “I’m doing well and feeling great.”
Reporters and other observers, leaped to the conclusion that Daulton’s message meant he was free of cancer. One example of many examples:
“CSN’s John Clark broke the news this evening through Twitter, announcing that Daulton, 53, has been cleared of brain cancer after an MRI test. Daulton, who played for the Phillies the majority of his career (1985-1997), was diagnosed with two glioma tumors in July of 2013. After surgery the cancer was still residing, but that cancer is now gone.”
In today’s sad world of journalism, getting it first is the only thing that matters. Getting it right is often irrelevant. CSN’s John Clark had it first, but he didn’t have it right. I wonder what, if anything, John Clark thinks today now that Daulton has died. I wonder the same about all of the other Philadelphia newsmen who declared Daulton cancer free.
The Daulton story carried the same headline in the Wilmington (Del.) News Journal and on the website NBCSports HardballTalk: “Darren Daulton says he’s cancer free.” Daulton, of course, said no such thing. He didn’t say he was cancer free, and he didn’t say he had beaten cancer. Reporters put the words in his mouth. That linguistic trick doesn’t make it so.
After those stories appeared in print and on websites, I spoke with an expert on Daulton’s type of brain tumor. “Someone with glioblastoma is never cancer free,” said the expert, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “He may be stable; his scans may be stable. But you’re never cancer free.”
Virtually no one, if anyone, survives glioblastoma. The worst thing a person who is diagnosed with a brain tumor can be told is that it is a glioblastoma because it is a death sentence.
The American Brain Tumor Association says the median survival is about 14.6 months and two-year survival is 30 percent. “However,” ABTA adds, “a 2009 study reported that almost 10% of patients with glioblastoma may live five years or longer.”
This is the roster of former major league players who were struck down by glioblastoma, the time of their survival following diagnosis and the date of death:
- Darren Daulton 49 months 8/6/2017
- Johnny Oates 38 months 12/24/2004
- Bobby Murcer 19 months 7/12/2008
- John Vukovich 18 months 3/8/2007
- Dick Howser 12 months 6/17/1987
- Dan Quisenberry 9 months 9/30/1998
- Tug McGraw 9 months 1/5/2004
- Gary Carter 8 ½ months 2/16/2012
Bobby Bonds and Ken Brett may also belong on the list, but the types of their brain tumors either weren’t determined or were never disclosed.
I will add two more baseball related people to the list: Michael Weiner, the late executive director of the Players Association, who died 15 months after diagnosis, and Jeanine Duncan, wife of the noted retired pitching coach, Dave Duncan. She lived for 22 months after her diagnosis of glioblastoma.
And then there’s Dave and Jeanine’s son, Chris, a former major league outfielder. He was diagnosed with glioblastoma Sept. 30, 2012, seven months before his mother died. But he is only weeks away from being five years beyond his diagnosis.
His survival might have something to do with the grade of his glioblastoma, but whatever it is I wish him many, many more years of a good, healthy life.
I wish Baylor had many more years to live than his 68 years. He was a good man, the best, and he should have had a longer life, not just for his sake but also for the sake of those of us who knew him and for the sake of those who had yet to meet him.
I liked what Frank Robinson, his Baltimore teammate, said at Baylor’s funeral Saturday.
“I wasn’t too friendly with too many people in baseball,” Robinson said, “and I don’t say too many nice things about them. But there’s nothing I can stand here and say bad about our friend Don Baylor.”
Baylor was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2003, three years after Mel Stottlemyre, the former New York Yankees pitcher and pitching coach, was diagnosed with the same cancer. According to a medical guide, normal plasma cells are found in the bone marrow and are an important part of the immune system.
Both Baylor and Stottlemyre underwent bone marrow transplants, and they worked for some years. But Stottlemyre had a problem early this year, and now Baylor has died.
If Baylor had a fault, it was his apparent aversion to telephones. At least that’s what it seemed like when he often didn’t return calls. None of his friends, though, held that failure against him. That’s Donnie, we would say to each other.
And sometimes Becky, his wonderful wife, stepped in for him and took or returned the calls. Speaking of Becky, I really liked what she said in announcing that Baylor had died.
“Don passed from this earth,” she said, “with the same fierce dignity with which he played the game and lived his life.” Not many baseball wives I have met could put together a sentence like that.
Baylor wore a lot of different uniforms, 14 in all. He played for six teams, coached for eight and managed two, including the Colorado Rockies as their first manager and the Chicago Cubs. He managed the Rockies to the post-season in their third season but lost to Atlanta in the division series.
Baylor was fired after his sixth season even though the Rockies posted winning records for three successive seasons before that final losing season.
Jerry McMorris, the owner who brought the expansion team to Denver, realized too late that firing Baylor was a bad move. A couple of years after the deed was done, McMorris told me he had made a mistake by firing Baylor.
I spoke to Baylor on the phone a couple or three months before he died. Had I known that that would be the last conversation I would have with him I would have made my confession on that call. Now I have to make it publicly. It’s only right.
Baylor won the American League most valuable player award in 1979 when he drove in 139 runs and hit 36 home runs. In the writers’ voting, he received 20 of 28 first-place votes and was a runaway winner for the award.
Two of the first-place votes he didn’t receive went to Ken Singleton and were cast, not surprisingly, by the two Baltimore writers who were honoring a player they covered the whole season and saw his imprint on the Orioles.
But there was a third first-place vote for Singleton. From whose pen did that come?
That is what I am confessing now, Donny. I voted not for you but for Singleton.
As the voting turned out, my Singleton vote had no effect on Baylor, even added to the three votes for Mike Flanagan and two for George Brett. Baylor was first with 347 points, Singleton second with 241 and Brett third with 226.
These many years later, as much as I liked Baylor I don’t feel bad or think I made a mistake voting for Singleton. In fact, it has turned out to be pretty funny.
More and more, younger writers are voting for the award (I was a young voter once, maybe even that year), and younger writers are using the so-called advanced metrics to determine their votes.
In 1979, according to baseball-reference.com, Singleton had a 5.3 WAR rating to Baylor’s 3.7, and Singleton had a .938 OPS to Baylor’s .901.