Damon: I just needed a break
We followed up on yesterday's SI.com article with Johnny Damon this morning. Some of you will remember that Joe Torre excused Damon from camp for several days last spring to attend to personal business. It turns out that Damon was having trouble getting himself revved up for Spring Training and had actually contemplated retirement, not wanting to go through the season playing injured.
Damon went home to Orlando and spent some quality time with his family, which helped re-charge his batteries. Damon said that it wasn't the first time he's had similar thoughts.
"All of a sudden, bam, you're going for seven or eight months," Damon said. "The game of baseball takes you away from a lot of things. You go through life and forget about spending time with your family.
"I went back, spent a birthday with my Dad – I don’t know how much longer he has, but he's a trooper and my best friend. I think as you grow up, you start realizing what's very important to you. My family comes first, but baseball is still very important to me."
Damon said that he never would have left the Yankees for good during camp.
"There's no way I was going to walk at that time," Damon said. "The season was too close. If a decision was ever made, it would be after the season, to give the team an opportunity to fill that spot.
"Sometimes you just need a break. Fortunately, I was able to get it."
Imagine for a second how strong our lineup will be if Damon returns to full fitness in left and Giambi claims the 1B job and stays healthy, allowing Matsui to DH.
Does seem like a lot to hope for, but it just might happen.
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Last year the Yankees had one of the best offense in the game. A lot of games were won on offense alone. This year, many of the players have said that they are in better shape (e.g. Abreu, Damon, Giambi). You saw what happen last year when Arod said he was in better shape - monster year. Let's hope this guys come back like Arod did.
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Agreed, and the fact is our pitching is better this year than it was last year We had a lot of good starts from pitchers like Pettite (how many 1 loss games can you loose? Thanks bullpen) and the young guns Wang, IPK, Joba, Hughes all were impressive. Hughes will have better stuff with the time off after the injury and new number I can feel it. And I believe that Moose will have a better year, it seems he's in a good mindset and he has taken the kids under his wing, when things like that happen you have to lead by example first and foremost, and I dont think a crafty vet like Moose will allow himself to have a bad season while he's mentoring IPK and Phil Franchise, just my take. I see much more upside to these Baby Bronx Bombers than the Geriatric Bronx Bombers from the past few years.
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Hey Bryan!
Quick question, off topic. It has always amazed me the respect DJ showed to Joe Torre in the years they were together, the outward expression of such was the fact that he referred to his skipper as "Mr. Torre" or "Mr. T." Is there any indication how he will refer to the new "Joe" on the bench? Just curious.
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rcn,
I don't know in which article he said it, but he answer this question by saying, "I'll just call him Joe"
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I heard Alex still hasn't spoken to Boras, thats pretty surprising since they used to be so close, I wonder if Alex will fire him. I'll be Alex's new agent!
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Jeter is calling Girardi "Joe" in most conversations. "Mr. Girardi" or "Mr. G." would be odd considering their past relationship.
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Has anybody else heard about some study at Penn State that says Jeter is the worst statistical SS in baseball, what a load of bull. Sure the man has lost some range but **** to be called the worst SS, thats insane.
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Just returned from Legend's Field. Interesting to say the least!Giambi to me sticks out like a sore thumb. Sorry all you Giambi fans I believe he is over paid and over his hill.Just because over the winter they take him back to the park and dust him off doesn't bring any promise kind of like Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens this past season.
Kind of strange not seeing Joe Torre there.Worse then strange just seemed down right wierd.
Now ARod looks even better this year. Heard alot of cheering and no nasty comments. One comment was over the top," ARod you are our God" now that was even to much for me. An ARod fan!He gave two small children in the front his batting gloves ( believe that is what you call them.) I really think he is going to be very popular this season.
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I would call Girardi, 'Daddy', if he wanted me to, he looks so intimidating.
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They use sabremetrics, Jeterstar, in alot of sabremetrics categories, Jeter isn't one of the top players in the league. Many stat geeks like sabremetrics, but the jury is still out for me. Look them up, some of them require a PhD in math to compute!
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Someone once said "there are lies, bad lies, and statistics"
I don't think I'll take it that far but statistics can be intepreted in many different ways. In some ways Jeter would have been the worse SS in the league, but that doesn't mean he really was.
All I know is if we win a world series I'll consider every player on our team the best at their position.
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