Way Outta Here?

Former Philadelphia Phillie catcher Darren Daulton, one of the best-known members of the rag-tag 1993 squad that went to the World Series, has been back in the news after an absence of a few years since his retirement from the game. All the attention, and more than a few chuckles on local sportstalk radio station WIP-AM, come after his claims that some really major world changes are going down in a few years - 2012 to be exact. In stories in Sports Illustrated and the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daulton claims that pivotal events will coincide with the end of a cycle of the ancient Mayan calendar six years from now. And who knows, he may just be on to something.

I first heard about the whole Mayan calendar deal when I read Domain, by a Philly local, Steven Alten; he also wrote Meg, a terrific thriller about a giant prehistoric shark that starts attacking people. The novel relates how, because of an alignment between Earth and the core of our Milky Way galaxy that begins on 21 December 2012 (which is also supposedly the end of the great cycle of the Mayan calendar's Long Count and a 26,000 year planetary cycle in the Aztec calendar), general mayhem ensues. If I remember correctly, the hero, born with special powers, does battle with a giant godlike-figure who is laying a smackdown on the Yucatan peninsula, Godzilla-style.

My curiosity re-piqued, I did some basic searches for "2012 Mayan calendar" using my favorite search engines (Google, Yahoo! etc.) and came up with way too many sites to list here. Not being any kind of authority in these matters, I have no way to determine or even hazard a good guess which are the most scholarly accurate. Personally, I don't think anything very out-of-the-ordinary will happen on or around that day. But just to be on the safe side, I'll try not to be out at the mall getting in some last minute Christmas shopping.

The Darren Daulton Sports Illustrated story
The Darren Daulton Philadelphia Inquirer story