Steinert grad Gallagher: Dutch best true leader of a team
While in the minor leagues, Darren Daulton never considered it a Dutch treat to play against Dave Gallagher.
But that didn’t stop Daulton from making sure Gallagher got a seat next to him during the 1995 Phillies season, which gave Dave the best stretch of his life to watch a great team leader at work. It also showed a respect the Phillies catcher had for Gallagher that the Steinert High product never realized existed.
Ever since Darren “Dutch” Daulton passed on Sunday night of brain cancer, the tributes and platitudes from coaches and teammates have been coming with the velocity of a Mitch Williams fastball. They all encompass the same theme — no one could run a clubhouse like Daulton.
The highlight was the 1993 Phillies which went from worst to first. But even when the Phils weren’t good, Dutch was the man.
“Oh God yes,” said Gallagher, a former Mercer County Community College standout. “He was unquestionably the leader of our team and deservedly so. He was unbelievable. Every test you would have about who was a true leader, he passed.”
But Gallagher’s path to becoming part of Dutch’s wonderland is a bit more unique than most people. The first time either of their hands touched each other was not via a hearty handshake, but when Gallagher shoved him over from his catching crouch.
Best to start at the beginning.
In 1983, Gallagher was en route to winning the Eastern League batting title playing for Buffalo, which was Cleveland’s Double-A affiliate. During a home game with the Reading Phillies, Buffalo’s Dwight Taylor stole second in the late innings with his team up big and Gallagher at-bat.
“He led the league in stolen bases, unfortunately he didn’t know when to stop,” Gallagher said. “I knew it was wrong. Daulton never threw the ball to second, he just stayed in his crouch. I saw him look over to the dugout. (Manager) Bill Dancy just nodded his head yes. I saw that too.”
The next pitch came at right at Gallagher’s head. His noggin dodged it but the ball smashed his thumb into the bat and the umpire called it a foul ball. Incensed that he did not rule it a hit-by-pitch, Gallagher hit the next pitch off the wall for a double.
But his thumb was broken, forcing Gallagher to sit out seven weeks while Taylor, of all people, took his spot in center field. With nearly two months to steam and plot, the nine-year MLB veteran devised his next step when he returned against the Phillies; this time in Reading.
“My plan was ‘I’m going to finish the series, go into their locker room and into the manager’s office and I’m going to talk to them and say ‘Hey, you can’t be doing things like this. This is my career.’ That was my plan.”
It sounded good in theory. And then, on his first at-bat, Gallagher was hit in the helmet with a pitch but shrugged it off because “I crowded the plate a lot.” Later in the game, however, he got drilled again and that well devised, letcalmer-heads-prevail idea got squashed.
Best to let Gallagher tell it. “I turned around and I popped Daulton with the palms of my hands,” he said. “He’s got a mask on, so I’m not going to punch him with the mask on. I popped him with both of my hands and he went backwards on the ground.
“Now, this was the stupidest thing I ever did. I let him up. I thought it wouldn’t be right, it’s not a gentleman’s thing to do. You can’t pop somebody when they’re crouched, and then jump on them. This was my stupid logic. So I let him up ... that might have been a big mistake right there.
“He gets me in a bear hug, I get him in a headlock, and this all happens in like 15 seconds. We both go down on the ground, both teams come on to the field, thankfully, because I could feel him start to get the upper hand. Oh man, I found out later he was a wrestler in high school. I’m at the bottom of the pile losing my headlock and guys on both teams just jump all over us.”
The melee finally ends, both players are ejected but Gallagher plays the second game of a doubleheader and is booed severely every time up.
After the game, unbeknownst to his teammates or coaching staff, Gallagher stuck with his original plan and headed for Reading’s locker room all alone. He is first spotted by Phillie Mel Williams, a Ewing grad who knew Dave.
“He looked over and saw me and he said ‘Gally, no! What are you doing!’” Gallagher said, laughing at the memory. “He had to think why am I coming in there? I’m about to get my butt kicked. Did I have a gun or something? I never got his perspective but I would love to hear what he was thinking.”
Undeterred, Gallagher headed straight for Daulton, who was sitting at his locker.
“I said ‘Hey Darren you got a couple of minutes?’ and he turned around and credit to him, he said ‘Yeah, what do you need? It was kind of funny. Two people being professionals I guess. I said ‘I want to talk to you and the coaching staff if you have a few minutes.’ Not only did he OK it, he got up and took me over to the manager’s office, taps on the door. They tell him to come in and he says ‘Dave Gallagher’s here and wants to talk to us.’”
Gallagher entered the tiny office, filled with Reading coaches and Daulton, and voiced his grievances. He stated what they did was wrong and he told Dancy how he had to watch the guy who caused the situation — White — play in his place because the Phillies broke his thumb.
“That answer was going to define what happened next,” Gallagher said. “If he says ‘Who the hell do you think you are?’ it’s ugly and it’s mostly going to be ugly on me because there’s got to be a half dozen of them in there, including Daulton, who probably could have taken me by himself.”
Instead, Dancy said an organizational meeting had just been held discussing that type of situation and the skipper agreed with Gallagher; basically admitting if anyone should have been drilled, it was White.
“That was all I needed,” Gallagher said. “I said ‘That’s good enough for me,’ we shook hands and I leave.”
Daulton got called up to the big club in September and went up for good in 1985. Gallagher waited four more years before joining the White Sox in 1987. Daulton remained with the Phillies while Gallagher bounced around. In 1995 he signed with Philadelphia and wondered about his reunion with his former Greco Roman partner.
What he discovered spoke volumes about Dutch.
“Frank Coppenbarger, the long-time head clubhouse guy for the Phillies, told me that Darren Daulton requested that my locker be put next to his, and that’s where I sat,” Gallagher said. “We never once brought that incident up. I just felt like it was a mutual respect. I think he respected the fact I didn’t come over to their locker room with my teammates. I came over by myself, nobody knew I was there, so if it went bad there’s nobody there to bail me out. It would have been like ‘Whenever you guys feel like stopping hitting me, that’s when it’s going to end.’”
And so the two veterans and former adversaries became locker mates and friends. Gallagher, who is a year older than Daulton, only lasted 62 games with the Phils before being sent to California. But it was enough for him to see what the Kruks, Dykstras and Williams have all been saying.
“I was in seven Major League locker rooms and I will say half the characters on that (Phillies) team were different for sure,” Gallagher said. “It felt like you were playing on the playground against another playground when you grew up. You got on your bike went to the playground in the summer and challenged another town and that was a game. You didn’t play for money you played for bragging rights.
“That’s how it felt with that team, and that tone was all set by Daulton. We would sit after games and talk about what we needed to do, and I love that. I am able to say that of the seven different teams I played for, he was undoubtedly the best true leader of a team I had ever been on.”
Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @fish4scores.