Day Seven: Making my Peace

Ok, I'm coming clean. I don't hate Johnny Damon. It's a pretty strong word, and I've never really hated anyone. I'm just letting off some steam.

Being on the Red Sox World Series team made him famous and the media made him a celebrity, and now Johnny Damon's taking control of his own destiny. I don't fault him for that.

He knew the Red Sox organization and the fans would feel betrayed and that his success with the Yankee organization isn't assured. But it seems he's willing and ready to take that risk for a chance at greatness. It's a business, not a marriage – he's allowed to dump them and move on to bigger and better (although that's subjective) things. And the money? C'mon. He's like anybody else - he's got kids to support, a wife and an ex-wife (I'm sure they're both expensive), he likes to be generous to his family members, he likes the finer things in life. Money's not everything, but let's face it…it means a whole heck of a lot to lots of people.

So even with all that being said, this is what I would say to Johnny:

People didn't love you and listen to you because you're a hot-shot baseball star with eloquent and intellectual things to say – they did it because you were down-to-earth, affable, and different. Now everything that made you interesting has vanished. You're with an uninteresting team lumped into a bullpen with a lot of big names and egos. And you look just like any other clean-shaven player with his stupid grin plastered on a baseball card. And God help you if you end up having a crappy season next year. But that's your decision and for what it's worth, it's all you, man. All you.