Other than for money, why did Johnny Damon leave the Red Sox for the Yankees?
473771
Here I have all his reasons\n1. Money\n2. Better Team\n3.Boston didn't try to get him as hard as the Yankees did\nand maybe he wanted to get a haircut
17178
I remember reading how Damon said he would never play for the Yankees.  I think he forgot the part where he says "except for a few million more dollars".\n\nWhat are you going to do?  It's all about the money.
449692
The big one was the curse of the Babe. \n\nBoston traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees and that's when they started losing... and when the Yankees started winning.\n\nBoston always had a good team. ALWAYS... but they never won until 2 years ago.
371677
Sammy Sosa was offered a contract by only 1 major league team this year (Washington Nationals) and rejected it because the salary was "only" $500,000 and not guaranteed. With no other team willing to take a chance on him he has unofficially retired.
636963
Unfortunately for them, he now plays for the Boston Red Sox. My grandmother can outhit him...and she died several years ago.
1104714
Johnny David Damon (born November 5, 1973 in Fort Riley, Kansas) is a Major League Baseball outfielder who plays center field for the New York Yankees.\n\nHis mother, Yome, is Thai and his father, Jimmy, is American; they met while his father was serving as a staff sergeant in the United States Army. Johnny was born on an Army base and spent much of his early childhood as an "Army brat," moving to several bases before his father left the Army and settled the family in the Orlando area.
959265
Don't look now but Fox Sports just reported that it was 51.1 million.  Just to talk to him!  That is insane.  A previous answerer said the would need 20 million more to sign him.  Fat chance, Scott Boras is his agent and he's already started harping about how pitching is at a premium this year.  I bet he won't sign for less than 10 or 11 million a year and that he is going to want at least a 4 year contract.  That would bring his overall cost to at least 91 million for a 4 yr contract.  I know the Red Sox really want to plant a foot in the Japanese market but wow, that is some price to pay.  It should also be noted that if they don't sign him, they don't have to pay the 51 million and no other team gets to talk to him until the end of next season when he is a free agent.
809776
Ted Williams retired from the Red Sox in 1960. He turned down a contract for $125,000 - a lot of money at the time - to do nothing but pinch-hit for the Yankees in 1961.
665319
No.  He signed a 4-year contact.  Four years later, he will be 38.  It's hard for anyteam to have a 38-year old center fielder and hit first.\n\nAnd please don't hate Johnny because he left.  Everyone works for money, and not only for himself/herself, but for all the people around him/her.  Johnny went to Yangkees not only because the money, but Yangkees gave him more recognition than Rod Sox did.\n\nNomar signed with Cubs for 2004-2005, but spent most of the time in DL.  He is with Dodgers now, and playing pretty well (.333 AVG, 4 HR and 18 RBI in 66 at-bats).
343728
Well I'm a huge redsex fanand Johnny was like a hero to all of us and then going to another team, and of all, THE YANKEES!  because of money. tisk. now all of boston will be wearing their "Johnny is no longer my homeboy" shirts. Im going to the first Redsox yankees game may 1 and i will def. be booing. And be cheering for coco( if hes not injured)
1185810
This year, the Yankee's payroll is $194 million compared to the Sox at $120 Million.\n\nThose numbers are not close at all. The Red Sox only spend 60% of what the Yankee's spend. \n\nLast year the difference was even greater as the Yankee's spent $208 million and the Red Sox $123 Million. \n\nThat $70-$80 million that seperates those two teams is greater than the salaries of over half of the teams. \n\nTo say they are equal couldn't be more wrong. \n\nIf you made $60,000 a year and your friend made $100,000 a year, would you say that you made the same amount of money? \n\nThe real question is why do the Yankee's continue to spend way more money than anyone else and still either lose or fail to make it to the WS for the past 5 years to teams that spend far less money than them. \n\nDoesn't George Steinbrenner realize that you can buy talent, but you can't buy chemistry? The reason they dominated the 90's was because they had role players like Oneil and Brosious and Girardi. They were all tough guys and clutch players. They have much better players now, but no rings.
610563
The Nationals offered him like six million a year.  The contract was not guaranteed.  He turned it down.  I think he's finished anyway.
1139746
Williams has NO long term contract, and Andy Petite is no longer with the Yankees. He has been with the Astros for two seasons. Where have you been?\n\nAND, don't say the Yankees have developed their own players. Steinbrenner has bought Damon, Rodrigues, Johnson (Randy) and several others no longer with the team like Clemens. Most of the Yankee success has been in the distant past, so Sox fans have nothing to be jealous about the Yankees.\n\nHope this helps clear up your confusion.
333815
No , he grew his hair because the 2003 Sox team doesn't care how stupid or unclean their team looked like. Johnny Damon's long hair didn't do much, consider him talented no matter what the length of his hair is or how long he grows a beard.
1129928
They suck... but its completely the fault of the ownership.  They're not willing to bring in quality players or keep the ones they develop from the minors.  Their owner is a disgrace to the game of baseball.\n\nThey could have had an outfield of Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran and Jermaine Dye.  All dealt away.  And none of the prospects they got back have turned out to be at all good.
617944
Seriously?  As a Boston Red Sox fan since birth, I would NOT want to see Roger Clemens come back to Boston and I will tell you why.  When Roger left Boston, there was no amicable parting.  He bashed the team, he bashed the management, he bashed the owners and worst of all, he bashed the fans.  Now, enough time has passed and every Boston fan is weepy eyed at the idea of the ROCKET closing out his career essentially where he began it.  Well you know what I say?  F**k you Roger.  We don't need you, we don't want you and guess what?  We won a ring WITHOUT your help.  Stay in Texas and coach little league.  (I will say this though, at least he had the decency to wait a few years before jumping on the pansy pinstripe bandwagon.  Unlike Johnny Judas.  That back stabbing son of a motherless goat!)
590060
he went to an orphanage for 11 years when he was a boy. then signed to the orioles. who traded him as a pitcher to the red sox