PHILADELPHIA — Something was terribly wrong with Darren Daulton.
It was the late 1990s, and Daulton was in Harbor Bluffs, Fla., where he and his then-wife, Nicole, shared a picturesque, three-story home overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway. Daulton always felt drawn to the water, his Hollywood features bronzing in the sun.
For 14 years, he’d been the affable face of the Philadelphia Phillies, admired by teammates as much for his talent — he was selected to three All-Star teams as a catcher — as his heart. Not even nine knee surgeries could keep him from running, sweating and bleeding on Veterans Stadium’s unforgiving artificial turf.
