Johnny Damon was on MLB Network yesterday and was asked about the Hall of Fame. It’s kind of a lose-lose topic for a guy like Damon who, if he ducks or deflects questions about it, he’s not being particularly nice to his host, but if he answers it, he gets people saying stuff like “what, you think you’re going into the Hall of Fame, you delusional so-and-so?”
But answer the questions he did, particularly one about which cap he’d wear if he was, indeed, elected one day (transcript of his answer via Royals Review):
Damon’s case for the Hall of Fame on the merits is interesting enough. I don’t think he’s worthy and if he were to retire today I don’t think he makes it. But if he gets to 3,000 hits, it will be time for a very interesting discussion. Let’s save that discussion for another time.
Merits aside, the cap topic is pretty darn interesting too. He was probably -- purely on the numbers -- a better player in Kansas City than anywhere else, but that’s not what the Hall of Fame looks at. If it was, then Reggie Jackson would be wearing an Athletics’ cap. It’s more about history and public fascination and all of that, and I bet that if you put 100 casual fans in a room, a tremendously large number of them wouldn’t be able to identify the team on which Damon broke into the bigs.
