The Case for Johnny Damon

I’ve been following closely the reveal of the Hall of Fame ballots day-by-day on twitter (via @NotMrTibbs, worth the follow.) Every day was the same, looking at each ballot to see if my personal childhood heroes received a check mark next to their name on the ballot. Then, just days before Christmas, above the gold, frankincense and myrrh, “Jesus Baseball” received a gift inconceivable to voting community, a check mark next to his name.

Johnny Damon, wasn’t even on the radar for a vote on most, but his named was checked along with eight others on Rick Telander’s (Chicago Sun Times) ballot. Telander received more flack than B-52 bomber over Axis territory, rightfully so though, right? Yeah, in no conceivable way could I imagine Damon with a plaque and I don’t even want to think about the controversy of which cap he’d wear between the Yanks, Sox and Royals.

But let’s take a step back. Maybe we are overlooking Damon. Whether the reason being that he was never the best player on his team, or even being overtly dominant at all throughout his career. Sometimes though, dominance isn’t key, consistency is, and I believe that you will be thoroughly surprised at Damon’s career.

To first appreciate Damon, let’s look at some numbers that are designed, by people much smarter than myself, to determine a player’s likelihood of being admitted into the Hall. In my Clemens piece, you might remember an algorithm called “Hall of Fame monitor,” 100 marks that you are likely to be in the hall. Damon’s score is 90. What hall of famers share similar scores? Tim Raines 91, Ron Santo 88, Phil Rizzuto 87, and for you Ohioans, Tony Perez 81 and Larry Doby 73, all have scores similar to Damon, and with the exception of the Rock have a lower score.

Yeah, none of the names jump off the page when you think of Hall of Famers, but you don’t have to be a Babe Ruth or Ty Cobb to be in the Hall of Fame, otherwise the Hall would have about ten players in it. The intangible that Damon doesn’t have that the other names above do, is a tremendous fan base behind him. Tim Raines was a long time darling of the disenfranchised Montreal Expos fan base. Santo was one of the best players on the horrible Cubs of the 60s and 70s. Perez was a key component of the Big Red Machine. And Larry Doby was the second black player to break through the color barrier, and the first to lead the league in homeruns.

What did Damon do? Well if he stayed with the Red Sox after winning the 2004 World Series then he could probably find himself enough of a fan base to get in the Hall, at least on the veterans committee years later. But, as we all know, Jesus Baseball turned to Judas Baseball and joined the Yankees. Winning another World Series in 2009. He did the unforgiveable, and lost his fan base in the process, along with his hair and beard because the Yankees are weird about that stuff.

So he if doesn’t have the fan base does he has the numbers? Unfortunately he comes up just short in pretty much every facet. Conventional logic says that a Hall of Famer should have about 60 WAR, Damon has 56. Okay you don’t believe in WAR? If you get 3000 hits, you’re a shoe-in, unless you’re Palmeiro. Damon in his relatively short career had 2,769 hits, he plays two more years full time, then he has it. He surprisingly had some pop in his bat. 235 home runs, over 500 doubles and 100 triples, though his slugging percentage is relatively low slugging a career .433 and never eclipsing .500. He had 406 career steals, which is nothing to scoff at.

No one assumes that Damon is a Hall of Famer, but the number will actually surprise you. He was a lot closer than you might have anticipated. Had he stayed with the Red Sox for a longer period of time then he would have found his way in their Sox’s hardcore fan bases’ hearts. He more than likely would be thought of in similar way to Manny Ramirez in the minds of fans while not having the controversy of steroids, though I highly doubt he’d be on the same plateau as Big Papi. Ultimately though,

Would I vote for Damon? No.

Will he get in this year? No.

Will he get in the future? No, he will fail to get 5% this year and will be removed from the ballot.

#baseball #halloffame #damon