Johnny Damon's Biggest Fan.

All I remember for four years were complaints about Damon's age, defense, fragility, and haircut.

Now, Lupica is Damon's biggest fan.

Also, Lupica evidently doesn't have the ability to look ahead to 2011 when Cashman needs to sign Jeter, Rivera, and Carl Crawford:

"The headline is that the Yankees have a budget. We are supposed to believe that this budget is the reason that goes now. Sure it is."

Nobody is supposed to believe it. It's public relations.

The headline says the Yankees are "demonizing" Damon. But the Yankees are being nice to Damon, blaming some imaginary budget constraints.

You weren't fired, you were laid off.


"Now you can take the Yankees at their word, buy this notion that they can't spend $200 million on baseball players anymore. But if you do, you sort of have to wonder if the team really is rolling in dough, the way we're constantly told."

Nobody believes money is the reason they passed on Damon.


"Really? Johnny Damon turns out to be the one guy the Yankees can't afford? It would be like finding the one bar girl Tiger Woods didn't want to take home with him."

Mike Lupica is short.


"But now Yankee fans are told their team went for Nick Johnson over Damon because Johnson is cheaper labor."

Johnson replaced Matsui. Granderson replaced Damon. The Yankees wanted better defense in the outfield without losing offense.


"The Yankees are always pretty sensitive when anybody suggests that they bought themselves their first world championship in nine years. And maybe they can win another one this season with an outfield of Granderson, Swisher, Gardner and Winn."

They pretend to be sensitive. Again, public relations.

Brian Cashman is reading this article while lighting his cigar with a $100 bill.


"For now, though, they desperately want Damon's departure to be somebody else's fault. Damon's. Boras'. Anybody but theirs."

I don't think Yankee fans really care nearly as much about Damon as Lupica seems to think.

Damon was here for four years -- I think it was four years -- played quite well most of the time. No arm, shaky in the field, getting older, 2009 offensive outburst aided a lot by Yankee Stadium's short porch.

It's not like the Mets trading Seaver or the Yankees passing on Jeter. It's more like last year when the Yankees passed on Abreu -- remember that guy?


"You know what the bottom line is on this sudden bottom line the Yankees have? If they wanted Damon to play two more years here, he'd be playing two more years here. They just don't want to say that. And for some loopy reason, they want to act as if they're the victims here."

If the Yankees wanted Jerry Hairston Jr. to play here, he'd be playing here.

What's your point?



"Except: Except none of those moves matters if Cashman didn't get to spend nearly a half-billion dollars on CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira last winter!"

Except: Except!