Johnny Damon's success feeds off his confidence; Red Sox center fielder has learned to deal with pressure during a career of high expectations - American League Baseball

Baseball Digest, July, 2002 by Bob Hohler

JOHNNY DAMON ON THE HOT SEAT? What else is new? Imagine striding to the plate as a high school senior while the announcer bellows, "Now batting for the No. 1 team in the nation, the No. 1 player in the nation, Johnny Damon!"

Consider arriving for your rookie season with the Kansas City Royals and discovering that all of Missouri expects you to be the second coming of Hall of Famer George Brett.

Then picture landing in Oakland, where the A's pay you more than even Jason Giambi to be their missing link, a gifted leadoff hitter.

All three times Damon landed in the hot seat he got burned. As fiercely as he battled--and maybe because he fought too hard--he came up short.

Now, as Damon puts his past seasons behind him and battles the expectations stoked by Red Sox fans desperate for a championship--he has a chance to prove once and for all that he can conquer a mighty challenge.

The Red Sox are counting on the speedy center fielder to deliver, during the next four seasons, the spark at the top of the lineup Boston has sorely lacked in recent years.

Fear not, Damon said.

"The way I see it, there's no pressure on me," he said. "I signed a four-year contract and it's going be fun. I'm going to make the most of it."

With history as a barometer, though, the forecast is cloudy.

Rewind to 1992, Damon's senior year at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Florida when he was rated the top schoolboy prospect in the country by Baseball America and his team was ranked No. 1 by USA Today. He was projected as one of the top five picks in the June amateur draft.

No such luck. Amid the hype, Damon appeared more burdened by his exalted status than emboldened by it, and he eked out only a .306 batting average, unimpressive for a projected first-round draft choice. On draft day, the first round came and went before the Royals selected him 35th overall in the supplemental round.

"Looking back, I think I was just more embarrassed that I was touted as the best player," Damon said. "I was like, `Whatever.' I probably should have been a little cockier, but that wasn't me."

A straight-A student in high school, he walked away from a baseball scholarship at the University of Florida to sign with the Royals for $300,000, about $500,000 less than he would have gotten had he been selected as high as No. 5.

Damon was as self-effacing off the field as he was talented on it. And he acknowledged as he shot through the minors that he was grappling with the kind of personal challenge that every ballplayer must conquer to succeed.

"My biggest adjustment," he said, "has been learning not to be afraid to fail."

ROYAL TREATMENT

Yet, when he arrived for his first full season in Kansas City at 22, Damon was thrust into an environment that almost set him up for failure. The Royals paired him with Brett in television ads that effectively portrayed the kid as taking the torch from the legend. At the same time, the Kansas City Star concluded "the Royals' success at the gate and in the stands in 1996--and arguably the Royals' future in Kansas City--is tied to the success of Johnny Damon."

Aggravating matters, manager Bob Boone batted Damon third on Opening Day, only to pinch hit for him after he went 0-for-3.

"That didn't help my confidence that year or the next year," Damon said.

Nor did the comparison to Brett. Just as the No. 1 rating in high school threw him off, so did landing on a pedestal next to an icon.

"With people comparing me to George, I was embarrassed by that, too," he said. "I probably should have been a little more cocky, like a lot of the guys who come up now (from the minors)."

Still, his rookie season was no washout. He hit .271, stole 25 bases, and scored 61 runs. But it wasn't until Tony Muser replaced Boone as manager during the '97 season that Damon began to blossom.

"He put the confidence back in me," Damon said. "He said, `You're going to be a star in this game and you're going to make a lot of money, but you just have to be confident and start going about your business the way you know how.'"

Over the next three seasons, Damon hit .304 for the Royals and averaged nearly 114 runs and 36 steals a year, seizing his place as one of the premier leadoff hitters in the game. His 2000 season was sensational; he hit .327 and led the league in runs (136) and steals (46).

He was a year shy of free agency, and he balked at signing a multiyear contract with the Royals, saying he was tired of losing. Still, he seemed hurt that he was traded to the A's in January 2001 in a three-way deal with the Devil Rays after his magnificent season.

"It was like, `Wow, this isn't sacred anymore,'" Damon said. "Once that first jersey gets stripped off your back, it makes it different."

UNCHARACTERISTIC SLUMP

He signed a one-year deal with the A's for $7.1 million, the highest salary on the team. But again he fell short of expectations, this time miserably. He hit only .211 in April and was still hitting .211 as late as June 18, a leadoff batter gone bust.

"When Johnny first came over," Giambi said, "I think he put a lot of pressure on himself because he was supposed to be that missing link for US."