Johnny Damon

Johnny David Damon (born November 5, 1973) is a former American professional baseball outfielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1995 to 2012. In his MLB career, Damon played for the Kansas City Royals (1995–2000), Oakland Athletics (2001), Boston Red Sox (2002–05), New York Yankees (2006–09), Detroit Tigers (2010), Tampa Bay Rays (2011) and Cleveland Indians (2012). Damon also played for the Thailand national baseball team and was a member of the squad for the 2013 World Baseball Classic qualifiers.\n', ' Damon was born in Fort Riley, an Army base in Kansas. His mother, Yome, was a Thai immigrant to the United States, and his father, Jimmy, is an American of Croatian and Irish descent. They met while his father, a staff sergeant in the United States Army, was stationed in Thailand. Damon spent much of his infancy as an "army brat", moving to several bases from Okinawa, Japan, to West Germany before his father left the army and settled the family in the Orlando area while Damon was still a pre-schooler.\n', ' Damon was a quiet child, largely on account of a stutter. "My thoughts just raced ahead of my tongue," Damon said of his problem. "I\'d sing songs as therapy, and I got better, but I still just kept quiet most of the time." He played in South Orange Little League as a child. Damon attended Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando when during his senior year in 1992, he was rated the top high school prospect in the country by Baseball America, was named to USA Today\'s High School All-America team, and was the Florida Gatorade Player of the Year. Damon also played football in high school, once getting hit by Warren Sapp and sustaining the first concussion in his life.\n', '