Hair-raising times ahead
More than 400 fans showed up on a chilly April morning, forming a line down 48th Street from Fifth Avenue, past Rockefeller Center and all the way to Sixth.
This was in the heart of the Manhattan, and Johnny Damon, still the center fielder of the Boston Red Sox, already owned a piece of it.
That was last April 4, when Damon was signing copies of his best-seller, “Idiot,” at a bookstore. One can only imagine what popularity he will achieve now that he is with the New York Yankees instead of their rivals.
Damon and the Yankees are about to finalize a four-year, $52 million agreement. He headed Wednesday night to New York, where he was to have his physical exam and possibly the most notable haircut in baseball history today. The Yankees will introduce Damon by the end of the week.
“He’s a rock star,” said Brandon Steiner of Steiner Sports Marketing, which has been affiliated with Damon since 2004 and has a partnership with the Yankees. “He’s already a national name. A lot of times you sign up a guy like that and you have a big run in one town, but I was surprised by how popular Johnny is.
“He’s created a little bit of a persona around the hair. He’s a little different, a little apart from the usual Yankees image, and I think that will add something.”
How much buzz will Damon create? Philips Norelco has already offered to give $15,000 to the charity of Damon’s choice if he agrees to shave with one of its electric razors.
“We’re so excited Johnny is going to be wearing pinstripes that Norelco is willing to brave the transit strike and meet him anytime, anywhere if he wants to take us up on our offer and get a Norelco shave to benefit his favorite charity,” said Elwin de Valk, vice president for marketing.
Wednesday, Damon had a 15-minute phone chat with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who termed it “a good conversation.”
That morning last April, Damon appeared with Regis Philbin, a quintessential New York personality, and Kelly Ripa to promote his book on their talk show. The night before, a gushing Philbin reported, he had been in Steinbrenner’s box watching the Yankees and Red Sox on opening night, and the Boss had been raving about Damon.
In a pinstripe brown suit and tie, but wearing his trademark shoulder-length hair and his beard, Damon was symbolically split between his present and future images as he talked to Philbin and Ripa. The suit was Yankee all the way, the corporate look that he will be required to wear when traveling. The hair and beard will have to go, but not necessarily the attitude they represent.
“I’m still going to be that free spirit that I am,” Damon, 32, told a Boston radio station. “It’s just going to look a bit different.”
“The fans are going to love him,” said reliever Mike Myers, who played with Damon in Boston and signed with the Yankees two weeks ago. “He’s very easy to like. He’s great in the clubhouse. I think he’d fare great.”
Damon’s hair and beard earned national attention as the Red Sox beat the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series and went on to win the World Series. But he has worn short hair before, a matinee-idol look that captivated fans in Kansas City and Oakland when he was in his 20s.
“The good thing about it is, at least it’ll make me look younger,” Damon joked. “Maybe if I would have looked younger in this whole free-agent phase, I might have been able to get a seven-year deal.
“The whole thing about playing baseball is winning. I’m going to go out there and try to be a piece to the puzzle, just like how I was in Boston. I was that piece to the puzzle that helped get the team back to the playoffs and eventually won the World Series. It wasn’t all me. I know that. So I plan to be a component. I know I’m surrounded by great players (with the Yankees). I’m not going to be afraid to take that walk. I’m going to try to do my thing and rely on those guys to make me look better than I possibly am.”
What is obvious, though, is that the Yankees have made their splash. With one move, the only truly significant move they have made this off-season, they overshadowed the New York Mets’ and Red Sox’s previous moves.
“People have been calling and asking for Damon items,” Steiner said. “Usually, when a guy leaves a market, there’s a run on items from his former team. I said, ‘I wish I had some.’ I haven’t been able to keep Johnny Damon stuff in stock.”