So Be It

Johnny Damon made his choice yesterday, and he blocked a trade to return to Boston.

OK, fine.

He'd rather stay with a Detroit Tigers team that has fallen hopelessly out of the pennant race than to return to Boston and help the Red Sox get to the playoffs. There is a lot of speculation as to Damon's exact reasons, and he didn't come forth and say exactly why.

But I suspect it has to do with Red Sox management as opposed to the fans. I'm sure he would have been welcomed back by the majority of them, and that it's time to put the recent past (Yankees) behind everyone. I believe that Damon is still angry for the way the Red Sox front office treated the contract negotiations after he became a free agent after the 2005 season.

Then I see crap like this. I love writers who don't get their facts straight. Damon wasn't booed during the Tigers recent trip into Fenway because he didn't play, as he had back spasms and missed the weekend. It would have been interesting to see the reaction by the Fenway fans of Damon no longer in a Yankees uniform, but it didn't happen this year.

And I certainly don't believe Damon passed on a Fenway reunion out of some "loyalty" to the Yankees. If he was loyal to New York, he would have signed a one-year deal with them and stayed before this season, but he and his agent, Dr. Evil, badly misread the market and he wound up exiled in Detroit. He should be as angry with the Yankees as he appears to be with the Sox.

If the Sox accomplished anything this week with Damon, they kept him away from a contender (Tampa Bay) and kept him in Detroit with the also-ran Tigers for the rest of 2010.

Damon had a chance to repair his broken legacy in Boston, but ultimately chose not to.

So be it.

Now it will be even more interesting should Damon return to Fenway with an AL team in 2011. It could be May of 2006 all over again.