Inductees

He grew up in the 1980s and, despite living in Florida, gravitated toward George Brett, Willie Wilson, Frank White and other Kansas City Royals.

So when the Royals drafted Johnny Damon in 1992, it was incredible. His boyhood team had come calling, following a decade in which Kansas City played in two World Series, winning it all in 1985, and in the late 1980s had mega sports star Bo Jackson.

“When I saw George Brett and the Royals win the World Series in 1985, I knew I wanted to be a Major League Baseball player,” Damon said. “I just knew I wanted to play baseball and I knew I was really good at it.”

Damon went on to star for the Royals as part of a 21-year career in the big leagues, and it’s why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted the leadoff man and center fielder with the Class of 2025.

Damon spent the first nine seasons in professional baseball with the Royals, who made him a first-round draft pick out of Dr. Phillips High School. He made his big-league debut in 1995 and steadily improved every year.

A leadoff man, he led the American League in runs scored (136) and stolen bases (46) in 2000, his final season with the Royals, before being traded the next spring to the Oakland Athletics.

Damon scored 504 runs in his Royals days, along with 894 hits – including 48 home runs in his final three seasons. His .292 batting average is sixth-best in Royals history behind five players –Brett, Mike Sweeney, Billy Butler, Kevin Seitzer and Hal McRae – who are Missouri Sports Hall of Fame inductees.

Damon also ranks 10^th in steals (156) and sixth in triples (47).

In 2000, he – along with Carlos Beltran and Jermaine Dye – helped the Royals tie with Cleveland for the best batting average in the American League (.288) and lead the league in hits (1,644).

“I knew Allard Baird really wanted me, even though everything I hit was finding a glove and my stock value dropped,” Damon said, referring to former Royals general manager Allard Baird. “But Allard Baird kept telling Art Stewart, ‘This guy is a can’t-miss.’”

Damon had been quite the athlete in high school. By age 18, he was 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds. He also qualified for the state track & field meet in three events, placing in the 100 and 200 meters. And the baseball team was full of future college and pro players as Dr. Phillips reached a No. 1 national ranking in 1992.

That said, the next few years in the minors readied him for the big leagues, thanks in part to managers Mike Jirschele and Ron Johnson.

“This is a failing sport,” Damon said. “I learned at a young age, including during my struggles as a senior, you have to pick yourself up when things aren’t going great.”

Damon faced challenges once he reached the big leagues. For starters, he had not had much interaction with the big-league Royals since he had not been invited to big-league spring training (that came the next spring). And his arrival coincided with the departure of center fielder Vince Coleman.

Fortunately, Sweeney and several others took him under their collective wing, and then-manager Tony Muser.

“Muser brought a lot of confidence to my game,” Damon said. “He said, ‘I’m never going to pinch-hit for you, and you will be in the lineup every day. He kept his word.”

The late 90s and the 2000 season in Kansas City, thus, featured an outfield – Damon, Dye, Beltran – who eventually went on to play in five World Series.

Damon later played for the Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland. He helped the 2004 Red Sox win the World Series, and the 2009 Yankees win it all.  Dye was the 2004 World Series MVP for the Chicago White Sox. Beltran played for the St. Louis Cardinals (2013) and Houston Astros (2017) World Series teams.

“I never wanted to leave,” Damon said. “But if I signed a big contract, I knew my friends Dye and Sweeney would have to be traded.”

Still, Damon credits the Royals for setting him up for success later in his career.

These days, he is living in Florida with his wife, Michelle, and their children Madelyn, Devon, Danica, Dasha, Daliah, Dreanna and Dash. And he looks back on his career with wonder.

“It felt like a dream,” Damon said.