It seemed a heartwarming gesture. Johnny Damon took out a full-page ad in today’s Boston Globe to inform fans that it was an “honor and a privilege” to play in Boston. But Call of the Green Monster has learned that the original message that Damon crafted for publication needed to be heavily edited and bore little resemblance to the ad that ended up in the paper.
“As you might imagine, Johnny doesn’t exactly write all that well,” Damon’s agent, Scott Boras, told COTGM, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “I had to rewrite the entire thing.” Damon’s original message paid tribute to all the “hot-looking babes” in Boston, going into excruciatingly private details about his bachelor days and subsequent marriage to his wife, Michelle. Damon also reminisced about nights of drunken partying, saying, “every hangover was worth it.” The message also included an expletive-laced tirade at Red Sox management for not “putting up the bucks” to re-sign him.
Damon also took out a full-page ad that will run in all New York newspapers today. In that message, he explains that it is “a shameful disgrace” to be playing for the Yankees, but closes by saying, “But, hey, money talks.” When Boras was asked why he didn’t bother to edit the New York ad, he cited well-known statistics. “At least 95 percent of Yankees’ fans can’t read,” he reasoned, “so the damage will be minimal.”
