Johnny Damon will begin this season in uncertainty because his contract expires after this year, and there has been little communication from the club regarding a new deal.

08:55 AM EST on Thursday, March 24, 2005

BY SEAN McADAM
Journal Sports Writer

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- A year ago, he saw four of his high-profile teammates deal with it. This spring, it's Johnny Damon's turn.

AP photo

Center fielder Johnny Damon, taking a break during training camp, would like to finish his career with the Red Sox - if the team is willing to ante up.

The start of the regular season is a little more than a week away, but Damon begins it in uncertainty. The four-year, $32-million contract he signed with the Red Sox in December 2001 expires after this season, and there has been little communication from the club regarding a new contract for the team's center fielder.

Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe, Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Varitek were in a similar situation last March. Only Varitek remains with the team.

Damon isn't the only Red Sox veteran entering the final year of his contract. Bill Mueller, Kevin Millar, Alan Embree, Mike Timlin and Tim Wakefield are, too. But Damon, who gave the team its identity last summer, is surely the most visible of the players who could leave after the season.

The silence from management hasn't caught him by surprise. Last spring, talks sputtered with Martinez, Lowe, Garciaparra and Varitek.

"It's to the Red Sox' advantage to wait until after the year is over," Damon said yesterday. "That's just the way they work. I'm not going to tell them how to do business."

That said, Damon would be receptive to discussing an extention. Not surprisingly, he said he might be more difficult -- and expensive -- to retain in November.

"I might [agree to a four-year contract] now, but once I hit free agency, I'm going to try to get six years," he said. "With the shape I'm in, I'm going to be in my prime. My best years are ahead of me."

It hasn't escaped Damon's notice that the Yankees might be in the market for a new center fielder. Bernie Williams, also in the final year of his deal, will turn 37 in September and is showing his age in the field. To most everyone's surprise, the Yanks didn't pursue Carlos Beltran this past winter.

"I know [the Yankees are] waiting for me," Damon said. "There's no doubt about it. I'm going to be a big target of theirs. I bring that extra baseball dimension, that market appeal -- the baseball player who never quits."

But in the same breath, Damon seemed uninterested in playing in New York, despite the off-field opportunities it would bring for his post-playing career.

Playing for the Yankees, he admits, "is very difficult to think of now. I hope I don't have to think about it."

Damon, who will earn $8.5 million this season, said his first priority would be to remain with the Red Sox.

"I hope the Red Sox come in hard," he said. "If they don't, I know a lot of teams out there are going to come after me this fall. There are going to be opportunities out there. I know I can command a lot, but Boston is the team I want to finish up my career with."

Like Varitek and Lowe, Damon is represented by Scott Boras, who often discourages his clients from signing extensions as they get closer to the open market.

"Scott works for me," Damon said, "and he knows what I want."

Beyond the Sox, Damon would be interested in playing for a team that trains in the Orlando area, where his twin children from his first marriage live. Those would include Atlanta [based in Orlando], Houston [Kissimmee], Washington [Viera] and Detroit [Lakeland].

"That would give me six more weeks to be with the kids," he said.

Damon already has thought some about player comparables and done some homework. He mentioned J.D. Drew's deal with Los Angeles this offseason (five years, $55 million), while noting that Drew has yet to make an All-Star team or play center field regularly.

"And I had more RBI than he did, hitting from the leadoff spot," Damon said. "There are definitely some numbers that land in my favor. Since Ichiro [Suzuki] came into the league, I have two more runs scored [452 to 450] and [31] more RBI [273 to 242]."

Damon said the fact that the Sox retained only one of their big free agents from last spring "does concern you . . . it does open up your eyes. I know to stay here I'm going to have to take less."

Re-married last winter, Damon is more at peace with himself now and already has curbed some of the partying that marked his last two seasons.

"I was going through a divorce and I started drinking a little more," he said. "I just wanted to be free from that situation. But I'm happy as I can be. I don't think [to drink and party] anymore. I'm not drinking as much, I gave up [chewing tobacco]."

But Damon added that his nocturnal habit never affected his play on the field.

"That was one thing I never worried about," he said. "I wasn't going to let that happen. If I even thought I was putting my team in jeopardy [with his lifestyle], I never would have done it. But I'm on the right track now, and I'm trying to be a better role model."

And in Boston or elsewhere, Damon believes the best is yet to come.

"Last year, I really tapped into my potential," he said of the 2004 season, in which he set career highs for homers [20], RBI [94] and walks [76] while batting over .300 [.304] for the third time in 10 major-league seasons. "I finally figured things out and put up huge numbers. Playing in [Boston], you definitely need to make an impression, and I did."