Idiot: Beating the Curse and Enjoying the Game of Life

This book, written by Boston Red Sox outfielder Johnny Damon and the legendary Peter Golenbock, was released on 4/4/05. I just finished reading it yesterday.

The only reason why I am writing about this book is because on page 128, Damon writes about a game that the BoSox played in May of 2004 against the Indians. He writes about how he homered against Kazuhito Tadano. He writes, "What was funny, their pitcher Kazuhito Tadano is Korean. The catcher, Victor Martinez, is Spanish." He explains that Tribe manager Eric Wedge tried to call timeout and go to the mound before Tadano delievered the pitch. There are two mistakes in one sentence.

The first mistake is unbelievable. Tadano's name doesn't even sound Korean. As a person of Asian descent himself (his mom is Thai), Damon should know better. Golenbock or a proofreader should've found that mistake also. The second mistake about Martinez is just plain ignorant also. Martinez is from the Dominican Republic, I think. There aren't any players in MLB from Spain.

The rest of the book was only so-so. Damon loves to talk about how he's the ultimate team player and how his numbers don't always show it, but he's considered by many to be the MVP of the AL and how he's always sacrificing his average by taking a lot of pitches in order to tire the opposing pitcher out.

He mentions Ichiro briefly in the book. He mentions Ichiro's numbers in 2001 when he won the MVP and says that his numbers in several seasons were comparable to those numbers, yet he failed to finish in the top 10 in MVP voting. I'm sorry, but Ichiro is 10 times the player Damon is. What's ironic is that when Damon first came up to the big leagues with the Royals in 1995, he wore #51 his first year before switching to his current #18. Back then I thought that it was funny how two players with similar abilities wore the same number on different continents. Then I saw how weak Damon's arm was and knew that Ichiro was the better player. KC papers used to say that he had a "pop-gun" arm. In the book, Damon claims he hurt his shoulder in high school playing football and had to change his throwing motion.

One more note: In the book, Damon talks a lot about hanging out with teammates such as current Yomiuri Giants outfielder Gabe Kapler (among others) last season in Boston and having fun partying and playing cards with guys like that. Kapler is mentioned several times in the book. Damon also mentions Dan(ny) Miceli's name a couple of times in the book. Damon talks about how Miceli is a friend from his high school days in Florida and how he's something like 0 for 7 against Miceli in his career.