Damon's no idiot when it comes to storytelling

Born in 1973 on an Army base in Kansas, the second son of an American soldier and Thai nurse, Damon moved around the world until the family settled in Orlando, Fla. Here he began to show the baseball talent that ultimately led to his being drafted by the Kansas City Royals. After three years in the minors, three with Kansas City, and a year with Oakland he came to Boston in 2002 as general manager Dan Duquette's last acquisition before the general manager's unlamented firing.

Damon's year with Oakland had shown him the unifying effect of that team's frat-house camaraderie, and he made it his business to infect the Red Sox with a similar spirit. He provides tales of good times had by a bunch of ''crazed lunatic idiots" and plenty of baseball, as well as brief looks at his first marriage, his enthusiastic womanizing, and his courtship of his present wife. (''Michelle and I were engaged over at Martha's Vineyard.") He also lists a lot of his possessions and gives us a thorough consideration of his iconic hair and beard, justifying them in sundry ways, before simply confessing: ''Hey, what can I say? I'm just blessed with good hair. It's turned into a Samson thing. My hair is my strength."

Damon, in fact, provides multiple, even conflicting conclusions on most subjects, and is sometimes diplomatic to the point of incoherence. His position on steroids is a prime example: He does not consider those who use them ''cheaters"; on the other hand he admits that steroids do give players an ''unfair advantage."