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Johnny Damon

Johnny Damon Marquee

b. November 5, 1973 · Kansas City Royals 1995–2000, Oakland Athletics 2001, Boston Red Sox 2002–2005, New York Yankees 2006–2009, Detroit Tigers 2010, Tampa Bay Rays 2011, Cleveland Indians 2012

In the seventh game of the 2004 Championship Series, at Yankee Stadium, he hit a grand slam in the second inning and a two-run home run in the fourth, and Boston completed the only comeback from three games down in the game's history. He had grown his hair long and called the group idiots, and the city has not entirely forgiven him for signing with New York fifteen months later.

Eighteen seasons gave him 2,769 hits, 1,668 runs — 31st all-time — 408 stolen bases, 522 doubles, 1,003 walks and a .284 average. He led the American League with 136 runs and 46 steals in 2000 for Kansas City, and had 214 hits that season, the most he ever had.

He won a second World Series with the Yankees in 2009, in which he stole second and then third on the same pitch because nobody was covering, which set up the winning runs of the fourth game. Two All-Star selections in eighteen years. His single ballot, in 2018, gave him eight votes of 422.

Honors

AwardTimesYears
All-Star selection 2 2002, 2005
Player of the Week 3 2006, 2009, 2011
Player of the Month 1 2000
This Year in Baseball Oddity of the Year 1 2008
This Year in Baseball Postseason Moment of the Year 1 2009
The Sporting News All-Star 1 2005

Batting, season by season

YearTeam GABR H2B3B HRRBIBB SOSBAVG
1995 KCR 471883253 1153 2312227 .282
1996 KCR 14551761140 2256 50316425 .271
1997 KCR 14647270130 1288 48427016 .275
1998 KCR 161642104178 301018 66588426 .277
1999 KCR 145583101179 39914 77675036 .307
2000 KCR 159655136214 421016 88656046 .327
2001 OAK 155644108165 3449 49617027 .256
2002 BOS 154623118178 341114 63657031 .286
2003 BOS 145608103166 32612 67687430 .273
2004 BOS 150621123189 35620 94767119 .304
2005 BOS 148624117197 35610 75536918 .316
2006 NYY 149593115169 35524 80678525 .285
2007 NYY 14153393144 27212 63667927 .270
2008 NYY 14355595168 27517 71648229 .303
2009 NYY 143550107155 36324 82719812 .282
2010 DET 14553981146 3658 51699011 .271
2011 TBR 15058279152 29716 73519219 .261
2012 CLE 642072546 624 1917274 .222
Career 2490973616682769 522109235 113910031257408 .284

On this day & linked events

1973

Born November 5, 1973

Fort Riley, KS, USA

1995

Major-league debut: Johnny Damon

Johnny Damon made a major-league debut on August 12, 1995.

2012

Final major-league game: Johnny Damon

Johnny Damon played a final major-league game on August 1, 2012.

Image: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0