Johnny David Damon (born November 5, 1973) is a
American Major League Baseball outfielder who plays
for the New York Yankees. Since the 2000 season, he
is 3rd among active major leaguers in runs (589),
and 7th in hits (912) and stolen bases (153).
Damon was born in Fort Riley, Kansas. His mother,
Yome, is Thai and his father, Jimmy, is a white
American (of Croatian and Irish descent). They met
while his father, a staff sergeant in the United
States Army, was stationed in Southeast Asia.
Johnny, their 2nd child (after James, Jr.), was born
at Ft. Riley, an Army base in Kansas. Johnny spent
much of his early childhood as an "Army brat,"
moving to several bases from Okinawa, Japan, to West
Germany before his father left the Army and settled
the family in the Orlando area while Johnny was
still a pre-schooler. Damon was a quiet child,
largely on account of a stuttering problem. "My
thoughts just raced ahead of my tongue," says Damon
of his problem then. "I’d sing songs as therapy, and
I got better, but I just kept quiet most of the
time." Damon attended Dr. Phillips High School in
Orlando, Florida when during his senior year in
1992, he was rated the top high school prospect in
the country by Baseball America, was named to USA
Today's High School All-America team, and was the
Florida Gatorade Player of the Year.
