Damon did, after all, own Boston (at least partially) when the Red Sox broke the curse, and he is one of few lasting images of the memorable 2003 and '04 teams. Yet his well-documented path to the Bronx and now Detroit has him as not much more than an afterthought to Red Sox fans these days.
That doesn't mean Damon's not thinking about Boston, though.
"I knew the boos were going to come," he told The Boston Globe of his first return to Fenway in 2006, "but there were a lot of fans here who feel like the Red Sox wouldn’t be where they were without my type of attitude and my type of play."
Damon's self praise didn't end there, as he went on to tip his cap … to himself.
"I'm one of those players who can go anywhere and make the best of it," he told the Globe. "Yeah, the players who can survive playing in Boston and New York, you tip your hat to them because there is a lot more than just playing baseball."
But wait — there's more.
"I get booed everywhere," he said. "It really does not bother me. It just shows I've been around and people know I can make a difference in ballgames. Like Reggie Jackson once said, 'They don't boo nobodies.' I like to think of it as a positive instead of a negative."
Of course he does.
The quotes aren't surprising for Damon, who seems to still feel as though Red Sox fans should bow to his presence for his contributions in 2004. It goes without saying that the '04 team probably doesn't win the World Series without Damon (with his six-game playoff slump in which he batted .109 aside). Still, he left Boston for a few extra million dollars from the team's most hated rival.
Yet Damon doesn't see things that way. Instead, he insists the fault for his departure lies solely with the Red Sox.
"Signing me would have been a very easy thing to do," he said, according to WEEI.com. "But with stuff going on with the front office here, was Theo [Epstein] here or was he not, all that kind of stuff. But you know what, things happen for a reason."
That's a fine way to look at things if the Sox had failed to offer a contract, but they did. Damon calls his departure for New York unfortunate, but his bank account says otherwise.
Damon also added that the Red Sox "actually would have won one more" if they had re-signed him after the '05 season, seemingly ignoring the fact that the Red Sox did win another championship in 2007.
As everyone knows, there is little to no loyalty in professional sports. The players are paid to do a job and the fans fall in love with them for that. Rarely, the feeling is mutual. More often than not, the player could care less where he's playing, as long as his employer is paying.
Damon, like most other athletes, fits that description. He just might never admit it.
