New book recounts Damon’s role in Red Sox’s run to title

I have to admit that the on-the-field look some of the Boston Red Sox players have sported the last couple of years or so has been, at best, a bit disconcerting.

Yes, this is talented team. Yes, the times have changed and left me somewhat behind them. I am a fan of the Boston Red Sox, however. Make no mistake about that. I grew up with the sounds of baseball on the radio. I was weaned on old-school discipline and Curt Gowdy’s voice in my ear.

In my house, there were always two topics of discussion when company arrived: politics and professional baseball. My sister and I used to sneak to the landing above the stairs and listen intently to what the adults were saying down below. The smell of freshly-brewed coffee always made its way to where we were seated. The church crowd was always fun to be around, even when we were demoted to the cheap seats.

No player on this year’s version of the Red Sox team epitomizes better what the so-called “idiot” mentality attempts to accomplish than Sox center fielder Johnny Damon.

Damon seemed to be the guy who appeared everywhere following the 2004 World Series championship season. It is no surprise that he and noted sportswriter Pete Golenbock have teamed to put together a decent baseball book entitled, appropriately enough, “Idiot: Beating ‘The Curse’ and Enjoying the Game of Life.”

Golenbock has written several sports best sellers, most notably “The Bronx Zoo” with Sparky Lyle, a ribald tale about the New York Yankees. This time out he and Damon tell the story of the wonderful season that the flashy center fielder and his teammates put together last year, shocking the baseball world by winning the team’s first world championship in 86 years.

Red Sox faithful know – I’m not much for all this Red Sox nation stuff, for the record – that the real catalyst on the Old Towne Team since 2002 has been the scrappy Army brat from Orlando, Fla., Johnny Damon.

To say Damon is a free spirit would be a bit of an understatement. Fans of baseball biographies will certainly enjoy his meteoric rise to fame and fortune portrayed in this treatise.

I have penned one sports biography in my life, and the success or failure of that type of book depends, in large part, on the subject matter and his or her degree of cooperation.

Our book, “Simply the Best: The Cindy Blodgett Story,” became possible because the young, female superstar was cooperative from start to finish. I’ve read other sports bios that found the poor writer desperate for information. Golenbock and Damon obviously made a good team.

The baseball talk is genuine, and the miraculous comeback season of 2004 is chronicled in delightful detail, making it a special keepsake for the legion of Sox fans who will cherish this past season the rest of their lives.

My favorite portions of this book center around the wonderful relationships between the players and their own antics as they go about the business of being paid big money to play a kid’s game.

Readers get up close and personal with stars such as Kevin Millar, the former Portland Sea Dog, who coined the 2003 motivational catch phrase “Cowboy Up.” The talkative first baseman was a good sport about his appearance time and time again on the big screen in center field at Fenway, which replayed an old video of Millar dancing to Bruce Springsteen. The whole scene never fazed him a bit.

Then there’s the soft-spoken Manny Ramirez, who is as big a card as Damon. Problem is, few people really get to see a side of the talented slugger that teammates do.

Damon admits that this bunch of players needed managers such as Grady Little and Terry Francona to play the way they have the past two years. Damon praises Little and writes that almost to a man, the Sox players hated to see Grady get the boot following the manager’s decision to leave Pedro Martinez in ACLS game 7 in 2003 with the Yanks when he was tiring.

Francona’s tenure has been popular with all players and perhaps Tito, as the team calls him – Terry’s father’s name was Tito – is the perfect fit for a group of guys who play hard and resemble the old Gas House Gang from St. Louis years ago. With beards and an often carefree on-the-field attitude, those Cardinals were a championship team, too.

Damon and Golenbock have produced a winner, giving Sox fans worldwide a nice read and a special addition for their sports libraries.

NEWS columnist Ron Brown, a retired high school basketball coach, can be reached at bdnsports@bangordailynews.net