By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Darren "Dutch" Daulton's death was mourned Sunday evening around the MLB community, with the 2010 Philadelphia Phillies Wall of Fame inductee being cited as the catcher and leader of the 1993 National League Champion Phillies team. While Daulton is (correctly) remembered as a member of the Phillies, he was part of the 1997 Florida Marlins team that won the World Series, a title that his manager says the team wouldn't have won without him.
Jim Leyland, who was in his first season as the Marlins' manager in 1997, told John Kruk that the Marlins wouldn't have won the 1997 World Series if they hadn't acquired Daulton in July of that season.
"Jim Leyland told me they don’t win the World Series if it wasn't for Dutch," John Kruk said. "He told me when Dutch stepped in that locker room everyone on that team looked at him and said, 'There's our leader.' [quote via Jim Salisbury of Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia]
Leyland himself told Dan LeBetard in 2013 that the Marlins wouldn't have won their franchise's first championship without Daulton.
Prior to Game 7 of the 1997 World Series against Jim Thome and the Cleveland Indians, Leyland actually balked at the suggestion that Daulton's reputation as one of the best clubhouse influences in the league was the main reason that the team had traded for him:
"There were a lot of people who thought we got Darren Daulton because we wanted leadership in the clubhouse," Jim Leyland said earlier this week. "But that is wrong. We've got plenty of leaders in this clubhouse. "We got Darren Daulton because we needed a lefthander who could hit. We got him because we thought he was still an outstanding player.
The truth of the matter was that then-Marlins general manager Dave Dombrowski did acquired Daulton to provide leadership to a young team loaded in talent, but he wouldn't have made the move if Daulton couldn't still play. Daulton had hit 11 home runs and driven in 42 runs in 269 at-bats for the Phillies that season, before slashing .262/.371/.429 in 126 at-bats for the eventual Wild Card champion Marlins.
In the playoffs, Daulton proved Leyland correct in his assessment that he could still play at a very high level. In 22 postseason at-bats for the Fish, Daulton hit .364. His lone home run that postseason came during Game 3 of the World Series:
Though he was hitless in three at-bats in Game 7 of the World Series, it's telling how highly Daulton was thought of in the sport that both Dombrowski and Leyland, who have cases for the Hall of Fame, wanted Daulton to finish out their roster.
For as highly as the league viewed Daulton as a competitor, he was an even better person. SportsTalkPhilly.com sends its condolences to the Daulton family, his friends and former teammates.
