Darren Daulton

You need only to look out to Wrigley Field, where Ryne Sandberg is back at second base for the Cubs, or at any NBA arena, where Michael and Magic still soar, to know that, in sports, retirements aren't forever. And, technically, the sad scene at soggy Veterans Stadium on Sunday wasn't even a retirement. No, Darren Daulton, the rock of the Phillies, wasn't calling it quits yet; he was heading for the disabled list and Florida, in faint hope that sun and exercise could resurrect his long-suffering knees.

John Kruk became the newest Phillie to join the club's Wall of Fame before Friday night's game against Washington. A bronze plaque bearing Kruk's likeness was unveiled by Jim Eisenreich as the Phillies began Alumni Weekend. The 50-year-old Kruk, who played for the raucous 1993 team that lost to Toronto in the World Series, was introduced by Darren Daulton. "This is the greatest place I've ever been," Kruk said as he addressed the crowd at Citizens Bank Park. "I met my wife here.

When the starters for next week's All-Star Game were announced yesterday, Darren Daulton, of the Phillies, was second among catchers in the fan voting. That was a mild disappointment for Daulton, who, after all, has led the National League in runs batted in for much of the season. On the other hand, getting 862,957 votes (compared with 1,323,419 for San Diego's Benito Santiago) isn't bad for a guy with a .222 career batting average coming into the season who in the early part of this season was the Phillie many fans loved to hate.

The Darren Daulton roller coaster goes up. The Darren Daulton roller coaster goes down. But yesterday, the Darren Daulton roller coaster coasted to a temporary halt, accompanied by a tune we have heard before in this town: Wait till next year. "There's always next year," the Phillies' catcher-turned-leftfielder-turned-first-baseman said before last night's All-Star Game. "I think I'd be lying if I said I was going to be playing baseball this year. At this point, I really feel that's out of my schedule.

The '93 Phillies are in town. To paraphrase the reaction of Atlanta's newspapers when those same Phillies visited that city during the 1993 National League Championship Series: Hide the women and children. A team that was as well-known for its grit, grizzle and girth as its considerable abilities, the profane and perpetually thirsty pennant-winning Phillies have reunited this weekend in Philadelphia. Ten years removed from their virtual wire-to-wire run to an unlikely pennant - and a memorably nightmarish loss to Toronto in Game 6 of the World Series - the 1993 Phillies and that improbable season have achieved near-mythic status in Philadelphia.

Phillies manager Jim Fregosi used to boast that he didn't give a flip about winning exhibition games. He'd say that, one thing you could count on, no team of his would ever win the Grapefruit League championship. Well, that was then. As Fregosi prepared for tomorrow's first official workout for pitchers and catchers at the Carpenter Complex, he acknowledged that one goal is to improve on last season's 9-19 exhibition record to begin erasing memories of 1992's injury-riddled last-place finish.

The Phillies yesterday morning submitted four candidates to the National League office for consideration as the season's first Player of the Week: Darren Daulton (.368, four homers, eight RBI, 1.053 slugging percentage). John Kruk (.476, nine runs, five doubles, two homers, five RBI, 1.000 slugging percentage). Terry Mulholland (2-0, 0.53 earned run average, .113 opponent's average). Curt Schilling (2-0, 1.59, .179 opponent's average). The NL public relations department could have picked somebody from another team.

Jim Fregosi wants Darren Daulton to catch 145 games this year. So Daulton will have plenty of opportunities this summer to wake up and feel as if he has just been run over by a tractor-trailer. But yesterday, on the first day of spring training, it became apparent that the Phillies' No. 1 catcher won't be experiencing that run-down No. 1-catcher kind of feeling any time soon. Yesterday, 21 pitchers threw for the first time this spring. Darren Daulton wasn't required to catch any of them.

It was a minor development, one of dozens that goes largely unnoticed in baseball every day. Orioles outfielder Eric Davis suffered a strained hamstring early in last night's game against the Anaheim Angels and had to leave the game. It may not be much. But it is at least another nudge that seems to push Baltimore closer to making a deal for Phillies rightfielder Darren Daulton. Not that the O's baseball people seem to need further convincing. According to wire stories, manager Davey Johnson has spoken at length about the benefit of adding a lefthanded hitter to his roster.