Player Name: Johnny Damon
Set From: 1993 SP
Card Number: 273
Why is this card a must have?: Wow, I don’t know how I missed this one, but I was suddenly thinking, have I done a post on Johnny Damon yet? Looked it up and sure enough I have forgotten him. This is from anything but a forgettable set, the 1993 SP set is simply one of the best from the 1990s hands down. I especially love the foil rookie cards. We saw Jeter’s earlier and there is also a 2nd year Manny Ramirez in that one as well. Just a beautiful set if you haven’t seen it. Back to Damon, he had the unfortunate luck of coming up with some very bad Royals teams. There he created a very impressive resume topping his stay off there with a top 20 finish in MVP voting. He was then traded to Oakland for a year, then hit the free agent market and landed in Boston after 4 very successful seasons in Boston he came to NY where he is now. While his stats don’t overwhelm, he is one of the rare gems in baseball, a 5 tool player. He never hit more than 24 homers or stole more than 46 bases in a season, but his career average of 0.289/15/74/29 over the course of 14 seasons is very impressive. As a Yankee fan I knew what we were getting in Damon, I just don’t know what other people thought he would be bringing. I knew a 0.290/15/80/20 season would be his max, so I don’t know why he got dinged so hard when he put up numbers better than that in his first season. He will be 35 years old this year and he has 2270 hits. I think 3000 is attainable for him if he can grind out 5 more years. I would be more than happy to have him on the Yankees if he continues to hit the way he hit for the 3 years he’s been on the team. I true team player, a spark plug in the line-up, he’s everything the Yankees need and no Yankee fan appreciates him.
On a scale of 1 – 10, how must have is this card: 7, he would be a better captain for that team than Jeter. He is a hard playing player who injects energy into any team he plays with. He is respected in the clubhouse but not by the fans. The cards go for $5 in the book, on eBay they are at $4 – $6. The graded versions go for as much as $25.
