Royals 2004 Star Series: Johnny Damon


The 2004 Kansas City Royals had many well known players that had successful careers after leaving Kansas City; however, players like Carlos Beltran and Johnny Damon had great starts to their careers with the Royals. Damon was drafted by the Royals in the first round of the 1992 MLB draft; and in fact, Damon was a local product, born on November 5, 1973 in Fort Riley, Kansas. However, the outfielder moved multiple times during his childhood from Thailand to Japan and other bases with his father serving in the US Army. Damon early in his baseball career returned to Wichita and the Kansas City area. The outfielder began his professional baseball career in Wichita, KS with the Royals Double-A affiliate, Wichita Wranglers. Damon was promoted to the big leagues after spending time in Wichita on August 12, 1995. The up and coming super star on August 12 made his big league debut against the Seattle Mariners at Kauffman Stadium that evening. Damon's career unfortunately didn't take off while with the Royals; however, he did become the American League stolen base leader and the American League's leader in runs with 136 in his final season with the Royals. Damon, in his final year in a Royals uniform, posted his best batting average in his career with a .327 in 159 games played. The Royals traded Johnny Damon to the Oakland Athletics in 2001 after spending his first five years of his career with the Royals. Although Damon was traded to the Athletics, he didn't seem to want a trade from the Royals. According to an essay from Damon for The Players' Tribune mentioned in the Kansas City Star in 2018, "You’re going to discover a knack for buying baseball cards and flipping them for a profit. It certainly beats your other hustle selling sunglasses at SeaWorld in Orlando,” Damon wrote. “But George Brett’s Topps 1975 rookie card? Nope. That one’s not going anywhere. George is your guy. A hustle player who can hit every kind of pitch. “So of course you’ll just about lose your mind with excitement when the Kansas City Royals pick you in the MLB draft out of high school. It’s hard to imagine anything better than getting the chance to play for your favorite team growing up. It’ll feel like you’ve reached the peak — what could be better?” Damon continued: “But Johnny, what you’re going to learn is that losing sucks,” he wrote. “And, man, your first five seasons in the majors, you’re going to lose games in some remarkable ways. You’re even going to be part of the first team in baseball history with more blown saves than successful saves. I know that sounds bad, but living through it will be unbearable. Losing suuuuucks. “And over the course of five years, even though you’ll develop all of the skills you need to be one of the best players in the game, that constant losing will eat at you.” Despite Damon's frustration over the Royals losing many games during his time in Kansas City, he finished his essay by stating: “But that frustration and sense of failure you feel? It’s important. In a weird way, it’s actually good for you,” Damon wrote. “This is a majority failure sport. Nobody succeeds at the plate more than they fail. Your best swing can turn into an out and your worst swing into a double. So even when you lose, if you keep the right mindset, you’ll never be defeated. You’re always going to remember the feeling of losing during those early years, and it’s going to make your desire to succeed that much stronger. In order to win, you’ll need to move across the country. You’ll need to learn new habits. And you’ll need to meet Jason Giambi out in Oakland.” 
Looking back on his career, Damon sat down with Kansas City's 610 Sports Radio and noted: "People ask me and I tell them that I’d like to wear the Kansas City Royals hat. It was my team; unfortunately, I didn’t win a championship with them but I always wanted to come back, always wanted to put that Royals jersey back on but they had their young guys coming up and I was just getting older, they ended up doing a fantastic job." Although Damon's chances of reaching Cooperstown are very slim, I still consider the outfielder one of the best players to put on a Royals uniform in team history.

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