The Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy — presumably the subject of a multi-million dollar bidding war himself at some point, therefore he can pass judgement — can’t resist taking a shot at Johnny Damon as the centerfielder heads to the Bronx.
Johnny Damon agreed to a four-year, $52 million pact with the Yankees sometime yesterday and when Sox CEO Larry Lucchino got home at 11 last night, all he could say was, ”We don’t have comments on ongoing negotiations. We have received no such notification [of Damon signing with the Yankees]. We have not been notified of any such deal.”
Asked if it would be standard procedure for the Sox to be made aware of their free agent center fielder signing with another team, Lucchino said, ”It’s generally customary.”
Damon was quick to say he’ll get on board, and cut his hair and shave to conform to Yankee ways. An all-too-modern ballplayer, he switched allegiance from Boston to New York before you could say, ”the New York Times owns 17 percent of the Red Sox.”
Here’s what Damon told Channel 4: ”They were coming after me aggressively. We know George Steinbrenner’s reputation. He always wants to have the best players. He showed that tonight. He and Brian Cashman came after me hard. Now I’m part of the Yankees and that great lineup. We’re going to be tough to beat.
We? Johnny, how could you? It took only a few minutes and $52 million to make you start calling the Yankees ”we.”
Actually, it’s pretty easy to understand. For all of his athletic gifts, we always knew Johnny had the depth of your average kiddie pool, and it’s therefore entirely believable that he could invoke the royal Yankee ”we” so quickly.
Shaugnessy is the worst. he runs the GM out of town and then has the audacity to call Damon out for not having allegiance to the Sawx and insults his intelligence at the same time (Dan, I wouldn’t start talking about “depth” – you’re only as deep as your next royalty check).
as for the move, whoever is running the store in Boston had the good sense not to overpay for a declining CF/leadoff man who’s on the wrong side of 30 and has a wet noodle for an arm. when Johnny is hitting .270 with an OBP of .315 by the middle of 2007 we’ll see who regrets the move they made. he’ll score 120+ runs in that lineup, but his closest comparables are Tim Raines (with 2/3 the walks) and Willie Davis. take a look at their age 32-35 seasons and tell me if they’re worth $13M a year, even in today’s bloated market.