Goodbye Beantown, Hello Bank Account

The Babe went to New York from Boston in 1919. In 2005 Johnny Damon, the All-Star centerfielder for the Boston Red Sox, has done the same thing.

Granted these are slightly different in significance. But still, what the F. Here are the facts:

He wanted a seven year deal. He got five. He's getting $52 million to play in New York where he'll have to cut his hair and shave his beard. No more Jesus comparisons. Just another centerfielder. Boston was offering a very similar deal, in fact, and sources at ESPN had him leaning toward staying in Beantown. And then he had to go and do something like this.

Now, I'm not a major Red Sox fan. I like them. If I had to pick a "2nd favorite" or an American League team to root for, they'd be it. I like their style, attitude, and work ethic. Despite the "Idiot" stigma they gave themselves, they seem like just a bunch of kids playing ball in the park...except they're two decades older and getting paid a lot to do it. I like that. It feels like a fun environment to play baseball in. Well, enter the New York Yankees. As always, they swoop in with their checkbooks and pry away great players from other teams. Could the Sox have afforded the same contract Damon accepted from New York? Probably. But they are also a little more fiscally conservative and conscious. A little.

So am I pissed that Damon has become a traitor? Yea. He's joined the "evil" side. Will he be pelted with boo's? Will the Fenway faithful give it to him or give him a warm welcome for his years of service? I'm saying boo's. I can't see this being taken well in Boston. In fact, there are probably cars turned over in frustration and outrage at this very moment.

I gotta say though, as much as I hate the Yankees and as much as I hate the idea of one of my favorite Red Sox switching to the Yanks, I hate one idea more. And that is the buildup and drama that will now completely dominate baseball this coming year.

Every year we have the Sox/Yanks rivalry pretty much lambasted across ESPN and other sports stations. It has to be the number one reason people pay attention to baseball. On any given night if it's just another ordinary ho-hum night in the big leagues, chances are the Sox and/or Yanks are leading the newscasts. And now this. Do you realize how much this is going to be overblown? Do you realize how much time is going to be wasted on interviews and Babe Ruth trade comparisons? Do you realize how much Fox is going to milk the crap out of this come Fox Saturday Baseball season? I can already hear Joe Buck and Tim McCarver (who should be shot) talking about this and how unbelievably important it is for baseball and bla bla bla.

I'm already sick of it. Every time anything happens regarding these two teams we need to hear about it over and over. Why? Because both teams try to one-up each other with offseason acquisitions. You think the A-Rod fiasco was a big deal two years ago? This will be five times worse. A-Rod was a free agent coming from the Texas Rangers. He had no affiliation with either Boston or New York. The only reason there was any controversy over him was because Boston was supposed to sign him and then some panties got knotted up and the Yanks snatched him up.
This will blow that away. Johnny Damon has not only played for Boston for the past four seasons. Not only has he helped lead them past the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship series aka The Biggest Chokejob In Sports History and onto a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals for their first World Series Championship since 1918 (that's 86 years numnuts). But he has been the smiling face of that jolly, funloving clubhouse of self-proclaimed "Idiots" that Boston, myself included, have grown to love. He is one of a handful of players on that team that give the team its character. Damons's Disciples adorned the seats in centerfield. Dunkin Donuts created commercials featuring him and his goofy beard. Johnny Damon was one of the faces of Boston for the past few years. And now, he's a Yankee.

Damon had an option to stay where he was loved and won a championship. But he chose the money. He chose the money. He chose the motherf**king money. That's all there is to it. It's disgraceful and if anyone in Boston doesn't agree then they are cowards in denial.

So with Damon pulling this crap on the city that loved him (not to mention the millions of elderly that never saw the Sox win anything for 60 or 70 years and then finally win it in '04), we will be treated to countless teases and intros to every Red Sox, Yankees, and Sox/Yanks game this season. The guys on "Pardon the Interruption" and every other sports pundit show across the country is going to shove this topic down our throats with constant debate and analysis and analysis of that analysis and debate of that analysis of the original analysis. It's going to be ridiculous. You'll see some sort of soundbyte or something on Sportscenter at least once every day for the next week. Working in the sports television medium, I can tell you right now I am probably going to throw up from the overabundance of this no less than a dozen times before spring training even starts. It's just going to be madness.

Yes, I am more angry about the television coverage and hype that this will create and get shoved down my throat than I am that Johnny Damon, one of my favorite Red Sox, is playing for the team I hate the most. What's the point of playing the 2006 season anyway? If the Yankees have any pitching whatsoever, they are winning the World Series. Their lineup will never score less than 5 runs a game. This is a joke. Here comes another year of "Oh wow, Shawn Chacon, Chien-Ming Wang and Aaron Small are so great, so underrated." Yea, how's Jon Lieber doing Yankees fans? Yea, that's what I thought. I'm pretty sure my grandmother could win 15 games with that lineup supporting her. Major League Baseball is such a joke sometimes. Thank God the NFL and NHL are still going on. Oh, and masterbatoin. God, I love porn.