Johnny Damon

By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — You can turn baseball statistics into a lot of different directions to make a point. Like this one: Johnny Damon has 499 doubles after drilling a Tim Wakefield pitch off the wall in right field last night. He is one shy from becoming only the 11th player in the history of baseball with 500 doubles, 100 triples, 200 home runs and 2,500 hits. The other 10 players are George Brett, Goose Goslin, Rogers Hornsby, Willie Mays, Paul Molitor, Stan Musial, Babe Ruth, Al Simmons and Robin Yount.

Johnny Damon finally felt welcome again at Fenway Park. Damon received a hearty round of applause when video highlights of his days with the Red Sox played during Boston's 12-1 win over Cleveland on Sunday. Now a member of the Indians, Damon says it was the first warm reception he's had in Boston since he left the Red Sox after the 2005 season and signed as a free agent with the New York Yankees. Boston fans have resented him ever since for not only leaving, but leaving for the team Red Sox fans love to hate.

When Johnny Damon arrived in Fort Myers, Fla., this spring, his first words were "Bless you. Bless you all. " As it turned out, it was no blessing in disguise. Red Sox Nation has been blessed with its first World Series championship in 86 years due in no small part to Damon and his facial growth and long-flowing locks. Damon's new spiritual look inspired teammates and fans to adorn T-shirts bearing his image. "W.W.J.D.D. What Would Johnny Damon Do?" read one that was popular with bleacher creatures.

By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff KANSAS CITY — Good morning from the Freddie Patek International Airport. We're here waiting for a flight back to Boston after a quick three-day road trip to Kansas City. There will be a 2004 reunion at Fenway Park tonight as Derek Lowe and Johnny Damon will be playing for the Indians. The only 2004 player on the active roster for the Red Sox is David Ortiz. How crazy is that? Here's hoping that the fans will cheer Johnny tonight. He's 38 and hitting .167 (5 for 30)

By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff Johnny Damon, a player who knows a thing or two about winning and good team chemistry, was on WDAE in Tampa today and talked about the news coming out of Boston. Question: "There was a report out of Boston that Josh Beckett was one of three Red Sox pitchers that drank beer in the dugout this season. Did that happen in 2004 when you were with the Red Sox as well? Your thoughts on Terry Francona not being the Red Sox manager any longer?" Damon: "Terry Francona to me is a great manager, but sometimes the players in the clubhouse also...

Johnny Damon finally felt welcome again at Fenway Park. Damon received a hearty round of applause when video highlights of his days with the Red Sox played during Boston's 12-1 win over Cleveland on Sunday. Now a member of the Indians, Damon says it was the first warm reception he's had in Boston since he left the Red Sox after the 2005 season and signed as a free agent with the New York Yankees. Boston fans have resented him ever since for not only leaving, but leaving for the team Red Sox fans love to hate.

wonders if Red Sox fans will ever stop booing Johnny Damon.

Tim Wakefield made it clear yesterday, he wants to return to the Red Sox. Nick Cafardo has a Winter Meetings preview in the Sunday Baseball Notes The Red Sox notebook has Johnny Damon stirring up trouble.

You fly all day. You are picked up on the tarmac by a police car. You change in the back seat, arriving at Fenway Park in record time, with sirens blazing. You throw on your equipment, head out to home plate, and there stands Johnny Damon, your old teammate. And 60 feet 6 inches away is Tim Wakefield, whose mystifying knuckleball has just drastically altered the lives of two catchers, yours and the guy you've been brought back to replace. Oh, and have we mentioned it's the first Red Sox-Yankees game of the season and there are 36,000 people...

By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff BALTIMORE — If there's a play-in game tomorrow, who pitches for the Red Sox? How about Bruce Chen? Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports is reporting today that the Red Sox are investigating trade possibilities at this late hour to find a pitcher for a possible Game 163. The particulars: ߦ Any traded player must have cleared waivers already. ߦ The player would not be eligible for the postseason roster, having been obtained after Aug. 31. ߦ The Sox would have to find space on the 40-man roster.

Johnny Damon hit a two-run triple and Jeanmar Gomez pitched seven strong innings to lead the Cleveland Indians over the Texas Rangers 6-3 on Friday night. Gomez (2-1) gave up seven hits and three runs as Cleveland won for the fourth time in five games. Texas has lost five of seven, but still leads the AL West. Shin-Soo Choo and Jack Hannahan homered off Colby Lewis (3-1) to help Cleveland take an early lead. Damon's drive off the wall in center was nearly caught by Josh Hamilton, who returned to the Rangers' lineup after missing three games because of a sore back.

Carlos Santana and Travis Hafner homered to lead the Cleveland Indians to a 6-3 win over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night. Santana hit his fourth homer of the season, a three-run shot in the fifth inning that landed well behind the Indians' bullpen in right field. Hafner added a two-run shot in the ninth. Jack Hannahan doubled home Michael Brantley with the go-ahead run in the eighth off Addison Reed. Johnny Damon went 0 for 3 with a walk in his Indians' debut, starting in left field and leading off. The 38-year-old Damon is with his seventh...

You fly all day. You are picked up on the tarmac by a police car. You change in the back seat, arriving at Fenway Park in record time, with sirens blazing. You throw on your equipment, head out to home plate, and there stands Johnny Damon, your old teammate. And 60 feet 6 inches away is Tim Wakefield, whose mystifying knuckleball has just drastically altered the lives of two catchers, yours and the guy you've been brought back to replace. Oh, and have we mentioned it's the first Red Sox-Yankees game of the season and there are 36,000 people screaming on every...

When Johnny Damon arrived in Fort Myers, Fla., this spring, his first words were "Bless you. Bless you all. " As it turned out, it was no blessing in disguise. Red Sox Nation has been blessed with its first World Series championship in 86 years due in no small part to Damon and his facial growth and long-flowing locks. Damon's new spiritual look inspired teammates and fans to adorn T-shirts bearing his image. "W.W.J.D.D. What Would Johnny Damon Do?" read one that was popular with bleacher creatures.

When was it that we were all bemoaning the fact that this latest well-hyped confrontation between the Athens and Sparta of baseball (which is which depends on your point of view) was a major dud? Oh, that's right. It was 10 hours, 51 minutes, and 26 innings of baseball ago. You thought Sunday's 12-inning 6-4/David Ortiz/Beating Mariano game was an epic? Nah. It was the lounge act to last night's headliner, a 14-inning masterpiece culminating in yet another game-winning hit by Ortiz, this one a fisted blooper to center after fouling off five nasty Esteban Loaiza...

They were deader than the Bambino, down three games to none to New York in the American League Championship Series after the worst playoff defeat in franchise history. Thousands of their fans had walked out on them in disgust. Four days later, the resurgent Red Sox had won their first pennant in 18 years with the greatest comeback in baseball history, beating their pinstriped tormentors inside the House That Ruth Built. "All empires must fall sooner or later," declared club president Larry Lucchino, after Boston had won the seventh game, 10-3, on the strength of four...

He'll be back here May 1, leading off and playing center field for the New York Yankees. Show some class. Give Johnny Damon a standing O. Johnny did nothing wrong, and neither did the Yankees. They each played by the rules. Johnny was a free agent, fair and square, and he and his agent did what free agents and their representatives do. They shopped around for the best deal. And the Yankees offered the best deal. By far. Johnny Damon did not owe the Red Sox or any of us anything.

■ Melky Cabrera became the sixth player in Kansas City history to eclipse 200 hits and the first since Johnny Damon and Mike Sweeney both did it in 2000. The Pirates' Andrew McCutchen was scratched from the lineup after he was hit by a ball in the lower abdomen during batting practice. The team says the injury doesn't appear to be serious and the All-Star is day to day. ■The Mets were missing their entire starting outfield because of injuries or illness.

A day after trading A.J. Burnett, the New York Yankees used some of the salary they saved to add Raul Ibanez as their left-handed designated hitter. Ibanez and the Yankees agreed to a $1.1 million, one-year contract, a person familiar the negotiations said Monday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal was pending a physical. It includes $2.9 million in performance bonuses. "He's a guy that's hit right-handers very well over his career, can still play the outfield," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said, without confirming the agreement.

baseball Commissioner Bud Selig yesterday had his contract extended two years though the 2014 season. Selig, 78, has held the position since 1992, first as acting commissioner before becoming commissioner in 1998. If he stays until September of 2016, he would surpass Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1920-44) as the longest-serving baseball commissioner. After owners approved the extension, Selig said he was "very humbled by the request to stay on. " Selig had talked of retiring in recent years, but received requests from owners who wanted him to stay.