MLB

DAMON MULLED RETIREMENT

TAMPA – Early in last year’s Yankees camp, Johnny Damon believed it was time to leave baseball. His desire to continue was drained from a family problem, and he thought about retiring shortly after the 2006 season.

Before leaving for home early in last year’s camp and missing two days, Damon said he met with Joe Torre and Brian Cashman and was contemplating leaving $39 million on the table.

“I talked to them about it, that it was weighing on my mind,” Damon said yesterday, after he was quoted on SI.com talking about the possibility of retiring. “I let them know what I was thinking. But I told them it would be a [horsespit] move if I did it [in spring training] instead of at the end of [2006]. I got through it and then I had to deal with nagging injuries.”

Damon, 34, is in better physical and mental shape this year and looking forward to putting his name in the discussion of good players after batting .270 and hitting 12 homers last year. He is signed through next year.

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Torre has long admired Andy Pettitte’s character and professionalism on top of his ability to win big games for the Yankees. So, when Pettitte surfaced in the Mitchell Report as an human growth hormone user, something he admitted to shortly after, and gave sworn deposition before Congress, Torre was at Pettitte’s side.

Thirty minutes before Pettitte entered a packed press conference at Legends Field on Monday, Torre reached Pettitte on a cell phone and calmed the left-hander’s frazzled nerves.

“He apologized to me like everybody else,” Torre said. “I let him know I was there for him. He may have done the things he said he did, but when you know what kind of human being he is and the heart he has, he doesn’t have to apologize.”

Pettitte threw 45 pitches in a bullpen yesterday and said his arm was fine, but “I need to get my legs underneath me.” Pettitte admitted his busy winter that included trips to Washington and meetings with lawyers cut into his workout time. Though his velocity trailed bullpen mates Kyle Farnsworth, Phil Hughes and Mariano Rivera, Pettitte wasn’t alarmed. “I never try to throw hard, the bullpen is to build arm strength and work on location,” Pettitte said. “My pen was normal.”

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Having secured Alex Rodriguez for the next decade, Hank Steinbrenner was asked if there were plans to get Derek Jeter signed beyond 2010 when his contract expires. “I am not going to discuss that at this point,” Steinbrenner said. “He has always been special to us and will always be taken care of.”

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Add the Damons to the list of Yankee families expecting babies. Rodriguez and wife Cynthia are awaiting the birth of a girl in April, and yesterday Johnny Damon said his wife Michelle is expecting their second child in October.