Darren Daulton Once Threatened To Rip Mitch Williams' Arm Off, Is Confirmed To Be The Real-Life Jake Taylor

The return of John Kruk to the booth brings the addition of a podcast aptly titled “The Krukcast”. I suppose Jake is going to ramble on on about whatever he wants till he gets hungry and/or out of breath (20 minutes mark is where both hit for Ep. 1), which is usually solid, off-the-wall material – Even if his cell phone goes batshit during the recording. If there’s one thing about John Kruk it’s that he says what he wants. The man is tough to restrain on actual, family friendly broadcasts. It’s a no-brainer to let the dude piss where he pleases in the unfiltered podcast world. The first episode, naturally, involves the ’93 Phils, which is a quick must-listen for anyone familiar with that team. He talks about how that team wouldn’t do dick if it weren’t for Lenny Dykstra, Curt Schilling being a talented, young prick, and a nice gem about Darren Daulton threatening Mitch Williams:

“There was an incident, it’s been documented, with Mitch Williams our closer. Terry Mulholland pitched the gem of a complete game, which Terry had a knack to do. When he started it, he wanted to finish it. Mitch came in and he was upset. He yelled at Jimmy Fregosi for not bringing him in, ‘If I’m you’re closer you gotta put me in that game.’ Darren took Mitch to the back room and said, ‘Look, that’s not what we’re about and if that ever happens again I’ll rip your arm off and you’ll never pitch again.’ “We understood that Darren didn’t have meetings but when he said something we listened and we took it to heart because Jimmy Fregosi demanded that of Darren and then Darren in return demanded that of us. You can’t find a better leader in baseball. When he got traded to the Florida Marlins in 1997, Jim Leyland was their manager and he said they wouldn’t have won without Darren.”

Awesome. We all knew Dutch was the man of the ’93 team. But this essentially confirms him and the great Jake Taylor from the greater Major League are essentially the same person. Bad knees. Leaders in the clubhouse. And both won’t hesitate inflicting bodily harm on players who aren’t in it for the good of the team:

Jake is Dutch. Dutch is Jake. Hell, they even had the same hot blondes with the late ’80’s/early ’90’s looks rocking by their sides. They both played vital roles in rejuvenating the fans in two baseball cities. Gotta respect the success. And by success I mean both leading their last place teams to the playoffs…and that’s about it. Can’t win ‘em all. Or any, as a matter of fact.

Still, long live Dutch, who is a couple years removed from a brain tumor and a decade plus from time traveling (hopefully). Whatever it takes, Dude. Whatever it takes. Dammit I miss Harry Kalas.