Whether it's about how "murdering somebody" is much worse than taking steroids, or about how playing for the Rays was some sort of lifelong dream of yours, we're always listening. And now, there's a new chapter to add to the ever-growing list of comments.
The 37-year-old, who's appeared to be dead set on reaching 3,000 hits and making the Hall of Fame, was a guest on MLB Network on Thursday night, according to RoyalsReview.com. Host Matt Vasgersian asked Damon that if he had the choice of what hat he'd wear in the Hall of Fame, which of his six teams would it be?
Damon didn't say Boston. He didn't say New York. He said Kansas City.
It's not the ultimate shocker, really, as Damon spent just four years in both Boston and New York, but it is interesting. He played with the Royals from 1995-2000, collecting 894 hits and stealing 156 bases there. It was largely that resume that earned him, after a one-year stop in Oakland, his big payday from the Red Sox in 2002. It was his work in Boston that earned him the monster deal from New York, but he's since become a man without a home. He spent a year in Detroit, vetoed a trade that would've sent him to Boston last summer and signed whatever he could last winter, which landed him in Tampa.
Still, let's play out the hypothetical. He knows he needs 3,000 hits to even be considered for the Hall of Fame. He's at 2,669 right now, so taking his average hits per season from 2008-10 (156), he'll have to play through the 2013 season to reach there — and that's if he avoids injury. At that point, he may have two more places of employment listed on his resume, and it will have been nearly a decade and a half since he last donned a Royals uniform.
It wouldn't make much sense for Damon to head into the Hall as a Royal, but with no other real alternatives, what does?
