Journeyman outfielder Gary Varsho spent only one season playing for the Phillies, but that season certainly had a huge impact on him.

Varsho was drafted in the fifth round by the Chicago Cubs in 1982, and six years later made his Major League debut with Chicago. After spending three seasons with the Cubs, he was traded to the NL East Champion Pittsburgh Pirates and appeared in the postseason there in both 1991 and 1992.

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He found himself on the move again in 1993 spending the season in Cincinnati. The following year he was headed back to Pittsburgh.

The 1994 MLB players strike lasted several months, and the clubs even resorted to playing spring training games using replacement players. Finally, the labor dispute was settled and there was a flurry of roster moves by every team in attempting to set their clubs for the delayed season opener.

Near the end of the 1995 spring training, Gary was signed by the Phillies and upon reporting to Clearwater, he was immediately approached by a player who would soon become a very special teammate. Darren Daulton came over to Varsho’s Jack Russell Stadium locker that day to welcome him to the team.

A few days later, the Phillies landed in St. Louis to finally open the season. “Shortly after getting into my room at the team hotel, my phone rang,” Varsho recalled. “Darren was inviting me to join him for dinner with a group of other players. I had never experienced this before.”

Soon this became a fairly regular occurrence and Varsho was so thoroughly impressed by the presence and leadership qualities that Daulton commanded. So much so that when Gary and his wife Kay welcomed their only son into the world the following July, they chose to name him Daulton after Darren. “Darren was the ultimate teammate, leader and warrior. Best I’ve ever seen.”

If that name Daulton Varsho sounds familiar, he too is now a Major League baseball player having just finished his second season with the Arizona Diamondbacks as a catcher-outfielder.

It turns out that 1995 was Gary Varsho’s final season in the big leagues as an active player. After a couple of spring training trials that didn’t work out, the family returned home to their native Wisconsin.

A year later Gary started managing in the Seattle Mariners system where he stayed a couple of years. From there he found himself back with the Phillies, spending three seasons’ managing their Reading AA club. After that he received another big league callup. First as Larry Bowa’s bench coach. He even served as interim manager for the Phillies final two games following Bowa’s dismissal in 2004.

He remained on as one of Charlie Manuel’s coaches for a couple more seasons. He then followed up his coaching career spending three seasons on the Pirates Major League staff. His career path turned to scouting in 2012 first with the Angels and then back with the Pirates in a similar role.

Now recently retired back to their longtime home in Chili, Wisconsin, Gary and Kay, his wife of 37 years can be found spending most their time following the athletic careers of their three kids. Their oldest daughter, Andie, is a high school athletic director in Stoughton, WI and younger daughter, Taylor, is a teacher and the head girls’ varsity basketball coach in nearby Marshfield, WI. During the summer the Varsho’s follow Daulton’s baseball games whether in person or on television.

When he’s not busy with his new grandchild or at a sporting event, Gary enjoys hunting white tail deer.

It’s been great catching up again with former Phillie player and coach Gary Varsho.

(Frank Coppenbarger spent 50 years in baseball, including the last 30-plus with the Phillies, first as equipment manager then director of travel and clubhouse services. He retired a couple of years ago and currently is coaching high school baseball in Ocean City, NJ).