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Damon reaches agreement with Yankees

By ART MARTONE
Journal Sports Editor

Johnny Damon, the symbol of the long-haired and free-sprited Red Sox who finally overcame the Yankees and broke Boston's nine-decade World Series drought, is changing sides in baseball's most heated rivalry.

Clearly irritated by the Sox' failure to offer him the contract he felt he deserved, Damon late last night reached preliminary agreement with the Yankees on a four-year, $52 million contract that is contingent on his passing a physical. New York's offer trumped Boston's four-year, $40 million proposal, which the Sox made during the winter meetings several weeks ago.

''[Red Sox] fans are going to be upset,'' Damon told Boston's Channel 4 in a television interview last night. ''I hope they remember the great World Series and the three out of four years we made the playoffs. I appreciate them.

''I tried to come back.”

Damon will replace Bernie Williams in center field for the Yankees and take his spot on the top of what will be perhaps baseball's greatest batting order. The Yankees will have Damon leading off, followed by Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matsui and Jason Giambi.

''We're going to be tough to beat,'' Damon told Channel 4, already speaking as a Yankee. ''Our policy with the Yankees is to go out there and win.''

It was a complete reversal of how Damon spoke during the season, when he said he could never leave the Red Sox for the Yankees.

"There's no way I can go play for the Yankees, but I know they're going to come after me hard," he told mlb.com last May. "It's definitely not the most important thing to go out there for the top dollar, which the Yankees are going to offer me. It's not what I need."

But in the end, it came down to money. Damon said the Sox didn't attempt to match New York's offer.

''I talked to [manager Terry Francona] and I told him they had to really get going,'' he said last night. In an interview with New York's Newsday two weeks ago, Damon had said the Sox had ''dragged their feet long enough'' and had to ''step up''. The problem was that Damon's agent, Scott Boras, was unable to get any team other the Yankees involved in serious bidding, which would have driven up Damon's price -- his original request was for a seven-year, $84 million contract -- and even the Yanks were lukewarm for most of the pursuit, feeling Damon was too emotionally tied to the Red Sox to leave.

Damon warned Newsday two weeks ago that was no longer the case.

''They're just one of the teams in the market right now,'' he said then. ''They've had all the time the world, and I've given them every chance before last season and during the season.''

Damon hit .316 in 2005 with 10 home runs, 75 RBI and 18 stolen bases in 19 attempts. His career average is .290.

''Good leadoff men are tough to find,'' Damon said, and then he added immodestly, ''and I think the Yankees found the best leadoff hitter in the game.''

The Red Sox said that re-signing Damon was their No. 1 offseason priority, and reiterated that as recently as last evening in a conference call with reporters about other topics. But sources indicated the Sox had a limit as to what they would offer in terms of both length and value of contract, for various reasons. Among them: Damon's age (32), the wear and tear he puts on his body through his all-out playing style, and the fact that his throwing arm has deteriorated drastically over the last few years. In fact, rumors are there were some corners of the Sox' hierarchy that -- in light of Damon's contract demands -- were in favor of simply letting him go and pursuing a younger center fielder, such as Seattle's Jeremy Reed or Cleveland's Coco Crisp (both of whom have been linked to the Sox in trade talks).

Damon sarcastically alluded to Reed and Crisp in his inteview with Channel 4.

''Hopefully now they'll go off and get one of the center fielders they've been courting for the last month or so,'' he said.

Replacing Damon may not be as difficult as it first seems. Should the Sox trade for Reed, they'll be acquiring a superlative defensive center fielder. And new second baseman Mark Loretta has a higher career on-base percentage (.365) than Damon (.353), so they may not have to search far for a leadoff hitter, as well.

But they'll be hard-pressed to replace what Damon, with his beard and shoulder-length hair, has meant to the Sox emotionally over the last four years. He dubbed the team the ''Idiots'' -- in fact, he wrote a book with that title last spring -- and he was the symbol of the group that finally overtook the spit-and-polish Yankees/

That he's now heading over to what Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino once called ''The Evil Empire'' is a jarring blow to Red Sox fans. Other Sox icons -- Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens -- have gone to New York in recent years, but Damon is arguably the first prime-of-career star to leave the Sox for the Yanks.

On the well-known Sons of Sam Horn bulletin board, one fan may have summed up the feeling in Red Sox Nation perfectly.

''Good bye Johnny,'' wrote a poster named dauber23. ''I guess you really are an idiot after all.''

Posted by Art  at 12:27 AM | Permalink | Comments 1