Johnny Damon all but ran the Yankees to the World Series championship last season with his dash from first to third while barely stopping at second on his twin stolen bases in the pivotal ninth inning of Game 4 in Philadelphia, and then GM Brian Cashman pretty much ran Damon out of town as his thanks for the memory.
But when Damon returned to The Bronx yesterday as a member of the Tigers for the first time since the Game 6 clincher against the Phillies, he was not seeking vindication following a winter of management hardball in which the Yankees opted to trade for Curtis Granderson and sign Nick Johnson and Randy Winn as free agents rather than bring him back on a new deal.
“There are no hard feelings. That’s the nature of the beast. I look back at my time here as being a world champion,” Damon said before his new team hung a 3-1 defeat on his old one.
“That was my sole purpose in coming to New York. When I played with David Wells on the Red Sox, he told me that if there was ever an opportunity to play with the Yankees, to take it and that I would love it.
“He was right. I did love it.”
Past tense.
A different personality might have noted that Johnson has been injured nearly all year, that Winn was released in late May, that Granderson has struggled and that the Yankees needed to make trades at the July 31 deadline for Lance Berkman and Austin Kearns to fill voids at DH and in left field that Damon surely would have taken care of quite nicely, even at age 36.
But that isn’t Damon, who is on a one-year, $8M contract after the Yankees presented a him with a take-it-or-leave it offer of two years at $14M that represented a nearly 50 percent cut on the 13M per Damon had been earning.
Cashman talked about the budget. Whenever the Yankees talk about the budget, they really are talking about something else. In this case, Cashman was talking about someone else; primarily Johnson, likely done for the season.
“I think we all knew I could still play, but [the Yankees wanted me back] only on their terms,” said Damon, who revealed a neatly spiked Mohawk haircut upon doffing his helmet in acknowledgment of a warm ovation from the crowd prior to his first at-bat.
“When you’re a free agent, it has to be on terms for both sides. I valued myself more than the New York front office valued me.”
Value is reflected in the standings. The Yankees started last night with baseball’s best record, partially because the front office owns expensive erasers, partially because the starting pitching had been so good for so long.
But now they’re tied with the Rays. The rotation is feeling the strain of Andy Pettitte’s groin problem and Javier Vazquez’s tired arm that became downright exhausted after requiring 106 pitches to get through four innings last night.
And the lineup is going through a lull, producing two hits in six innings off Max Scherzer a day after getting two hits in eight innings off anti-phenom Bryan Bullington in Sunday’s 1-0 defeat in Kansas City.
Added up it equals a 6-9 record over the last 15 games and a looming three-into-one-won’t-go playoff race with Tampa Bay and Boston. Subtract for even a short time Alex Rodriguez, who left in the fifth inning with tightness in the left calf, and trouble could be brewing.
The Yankees lost twice in the first round before missing the playoffs in Damon’s first three years in pinstripes. He can’t pitch and he can’t play third. His absence is unlikely to be a determining factor in the team’s ultimate fate.
“The Yankees feel they got better,’ Damon, 0-for-3 with two walks, said. “I think they’re loaded.”
Damon was referring to the roster, not the bank account.
The latter, there is no question. The former, that still remains to be seen.