THE CENTER OF ATTENTION
Yanks biggest off-season acquisition plays under media microscope




By: Russ Rose
Special to Yankees Talk Shop
April 13, 2006

“Table setter,” “motor,” “accelerator,” “catalyst” - these are all names you’ve heard to describe the guys managers like to insert into their number one slot in the batting order.

These are the guys who are expected to get on base any way they can and make things happen. They’re supposed to make opposing pitchers and managers nervous. They are counted upon to reach base often and score a lot of runs. Yankees’ center fielder Johnny Damon is such a player.

Damon was signed by the New York Yankees in the off-season after he played the past four seasons for the Bombers’ fiercest rivals, the Boston Red Sox. The trade was heralded in New York and lamented in Boston.


Damon, who for the past four seasons was soundly booed in Yankee Stadium, now hears cheers in its place. However, such will not be the case when he steps out on the field at Fenway Park on May 1st in front of the crowd that adored him. Already there are shirts being worn in Boston depicting Damon’s caricature with the word “traitor” on it. There are shirts with the number 18 on them that have the international prohibited sign over the number.

These days Johnny Damon is known by the Red Sox nation as “Johnny Demon.” That’s what a rivalry, as nasty as this one is, will do for you. You are either canonized or demonized. It all depends where you play and whose uniform you are wearing. The ultimate sin is when one player goes from one camp directly to the other. In Boston Damon committed the final sin.

Fortunately for Damon playing in Boston is what has prepared him for playing in The Big Apple. At Fenway, where baseball is a religion second only to the Catholic Church, and the Red Sox are treated almost god-like, Damon became a leader of the team that Bostonians used to bitterly describe as ‘giving us hope only to tear our hearts out – again.’ Damon helped change all of that.

In 2001 Damon came over to the Oakland Athletics where he spent a year after playing six years in Kansas City. Damon went from the Bible belt to the ultimate frat house. There he met Yankees’ first baseman Jason Giambi, who was the Athletics clubhouse leader. In Oakland the players partied hard and played hard. Johnny learned lessons he used to motivate his future team in Boston.

Upon Damon’s arrival in Boston in 2002 he learned right away why the Yankees – Red Sox rivalry is considered the best and fiercest rivalry in sports. Damon jumped in with both feet. He let his hair grow long and developed a grizzly beard. He became known as “Caveman,” or “Jesus,” and shirts with the anagram “W.W.J.D.D.?” – meaning “What Would Johnny Damon Do?” appeared. He became a cult hero to the Red Sox Nation. What Damon did was galvanize the Boston clubhouse like no other player in their history had been able to do.

Year after year, and for 86 years the Red Sox continually broke the hearts and spirits of its fans. Not since the 1918 season had Boston raised a championship banner over Fenway. The number seven was very unlucky for the Red Sox, because they always lost Game Seven in the World Series when they got there. Boston’s uncanny lack of luck was tied to the selling of Boston’s Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for sum of $125,000.

Of course Yankees fans being the quiet, compassionate, fans they are took no small pleasure in lording over Red Sox fans the fact the Yankees went on to win twenty-six world titles after Ruth arrived in 1920. Chants of “1918, 1918, 1918” were heard in every ballpark in America. Boston’s team was truly “cursed.”

Funny thing about baseball though, fortunes can change with one game and that happened in 2004.

To set this up, one needs to go back to the eleventh inning of Game Seven of the 2003 American League Championship Series. It was Tim Wakefield versus Aaron Boone. Wakefield had already beaten the Yankees twice in the series and looked to be their savior again. Boone, who disappeared offensively for the Yankees, had knocked in only one run during the entire series. It all boiled down to one pitch. Wakefield threw a knuckleball that stayed straight and Boone hit into the left field seats for a game winning, walk-off, home run.

Instead of crying in their milk, the Red Sox spent the winter getting ready to even the score. Johnny Damon led the charge. Instead of “cowboy up,” and “why not us,” Damon simply called his team “a bunch of idiots.” He kept the clubhouse loose. Other guys grew their hair out and started beards. They looked like the east coast version of the Oakland Athletics. This time the Sox didn’t panic, didn’t freeze up, and didn’t roll over.

The Sox spent the entire 2004 season chasing the Yankees. They finally caught up with them in the AL Division Series.

For the first three games it looked like it was going to be business as usual. New York took three straight from the Boston, placing them in the precarious position of having every game be an elimination game. In fact, the 22 hit, 19-8 beating the Yankees gave the Sox in Game Three at Fenway had everyone in the country thinking sweep - everyone that is except the guys with the “Bs” on their caps. What Boston did in that series ranks as the greatest comeback in sports history. Teetering on the brink of elimination the Red Sox came back and beat the Yankees four straight times to win the series and propel themselves into the World Series for the first time since 1986. No team had ever done that before.

Johnny Damon, up until Game Seven had a miserable series, but helped hammer the final nails in New York’s coffin. Damon went 3 for 6, including a grand slam, and knocked in six RBI as the Sox finally exorcised their demons with a 10-3 drubbing of the Yankees.

As we all know, Boston went on to the World Series and swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four games to win their first world championship in 86 years.

Although the Red Sox weren’t able to duplicate the magic during the 2005 season their fans will never forget an improbable 2004. Now, as many of them put it they “can die happy.” Johnny Damon became the face of that championship team. That’s what makes his defection to the Yankees an even bitterer pill to swallow.

What the Yankees are hoping for is that Damon has some of that magic left in his bag of tricks. Damon signed a huge four-year, $52 million contract to be their catalyst. So far so good. In the first eight games, Damon has an OBP of .432 and a SLG% of .485, while batting .333. He has scored eleven runs and in that time. Comparing his stats to last year at the same time Damon had an OBP of .303 and a SLG% of .364 while batting .303. He had only eight runs scored and no RBI.

The one thing that is of concern is Damon’s throwing ability. He has an arm akin to Bernie Williams where runners will challenge him to take extra bases away from them. But, if Damon’s speed helps him get to balls that Williams could no longer reach then his throwing ability won’t be as much of a factor.

The other thing Damon brings to the table is his personality. On a club where the faces are shaven and the hair is short Damon has gone from caveman to shave-man. However, the “idiot” still lurks underneath his more polished look. Everyone from Derek Jeter to Jason Giambi has told him to be himself. Be careful what you wish for, because that will mean a looser clubhouse, and a more fun atmosphere.

Experts are saying that with Johnny Damon’s arrival in New York the Yankees line up has the potential of scoring over 1,000 runs this season. The results, to date, have been diverse. In games they have won, the Yankees have outscored their opponents by an average of 11.5 to 3.75 runs per game. In contrast, in games they have lost the ratio is 2.5 to 5 runs per game. Where New York has faced better pitching as in Anaheim and Oakland they have not fared well. Against Kansas City the Yankees have feasted, which has helped inflate their numbers.

Keep in mind, the season is young and the results so far come from a very small sampling. You can see the potential this team has, but you can also see its liabilities. It will take an entire regular and, hopefully, post-season to see how much of an impact Johnny Damon has in getting the Yankees their 27th world championship.

All the while Damon will remain a focus of the media and will continually be dissected under their microscope.



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