Red Sox' Leading 'Idiot' Johnny Damon on 'Beating the Curse'

Idiot: Beating "The Curse" and Enjoying the Game of Life. Johnny Damon with Peter Golenbock. New York: Crown Publishers. 2005. 258 pages including index and 2 appendixes. 8 pages of color photos. ISBN 030723763X. Available from Amazon.com for $16.32.

In 1920, the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, and the "Curse of the Bambino" was begun. The Red Sox had won the World Series for the fourth time in 1918...but although they were in the post-season many times after that, they always found ways to lose, sometimes in heartbreakers...especially in the 2003 season. But then came 2004 and the 'year of the idiots.' After 86 years the curse was broken.

How did they finally do it? Johnny Damon, Red Sox center fielder and lead-off man, tells the story.

Damon, the son of an American GI father and a Thai mother, grew up in Florida playing sports, and didn't start concentrating on baseball until his sophomore year in high school. He was so good that he played on several All Star teams - including one that had Alex Rodriguez, Todd Helton and Danny Kanell. Although he was prepared to go to Florida State University on a baseball scholarship, Damon was drafted by the Kansas City Royals and went into the pros instead. After 7 seasons he arrived in Boston, and three years later helped them win the Championship.

Damon, with the assistance of writer Peter Golenbock, tells his story in an easy, conversational tone, from his childhood love of sports (not so much detail about the academic side of his life, however), to his time with the Royals in their minor league system and promotion to the pros, to the reasons behind the disintegration of his first marriage to the joy of his second.

But most of the book is about the magical 2004 season.

It was Johnny Damon that put the label of "Idiots" on the 2004 team: "We're not going to try to figure it out," Johnny Damon told a reporter during the 2004 season, when asked how they were going to beat the Yankees. "We're just a bunch of idiots. We're just going to throw the ball, hit the ball, catch the ball. We want to keep the thinking process out of it."

This is baseball told from an insider's point of view, from the inner workings of teams to the relationships with fans and friends, to the strategies of just going out and winning ballgames. We learn the inside scoop on Damon's relationships with his managers and teammates, as well as his friends on rival clubs.

Damon is very diplomatic, never criticizing anyone (except the media for blowing various events out of proportion) - a stark contrast from Jose Conseco's "confess all and implicate everybody" book. Damon does not criticize any players who have taken steroids, but he does take a stand: "When I was growing up I remember seeing Lyle Alzado on TV talking about how he was dying from taking steroids. He was the reason I never took them. Lenny Bias was the reason I never took cocaine." It's too bad that young people can't take the same lesson from those tragic deaths - if it could happen to them - it could happen to you.

Damon covers the controversies, from Pedro Martinez' actions in the clubhouse and on the field, including his 'self-defense' roll-over of the charging Don Zimmer from the Yankees during the 2003 playoffs, to the trading of Nomar Garciaparra. We see the ambition and the exhaustion that comes from playing at a high level every day. We see that the players are human beings as well as multi-millionaires..and that's something most fans forget.

This is a must read for any all Red Sox fans, and any baseball fan, come to that.

Appendixes: 1) Johnny Damon career statisitics. 2) The 2004 World Championship Red Sox team - from position players and pitchers to the people behind the scenes who made it happen.