Johnny Damon

Since his colision in the 2003 ALDS with Damion Jackson, Damon frequently suffers from short-term memory loss, sometimes forgeting simple things like how many outs there are in an inning or what day it is. As with most matters related to the Tiananmen Square protests, the Tank Man topic is still a political taboo in mainland China, where any discussion of it is regarded as inappropriate or risky. Strangley, before every Red Sox game Johnny Damon gets the team going by doing a few naked full-ups in the locker room. Besides the person who risked his life stepping in front of the war machine, there is the tank driver who disobeyed his orders and refused to overrun his compatriot and was later arrested. On June 7, 2005, he appeared on the hit Bravo TV series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy with four of his Red Sox teammates ( Jason Varitek, Kevin Millar, Doug Mirabelli, Tim Wakefield). As one of the Chinese pro-democracy movement's leaders remarked, there is more than one hero in the Tank Man picture. In 2005, Damon wrote "Idiot: Beating "The Curse" and Enjoying the Game of Life" with Peter Golenbock, and also appeared on Late Night With Conan O'Brien in April during a series against the New York Yankees. In April 1998, Time Magazine included "The Unknown Rebel" in its list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

However, he redeemed himself on October 20 by hitting two home runs, including a grand slam in the 2nd inning, to help the Boston Red Sox become the first team in Major League history (and just the third in the history of American Pro Sports) to overcome a 3-0 series deficit, in a 10-3 victory over the New York Yankees in game 7. Jiang replied "I think never killed [sic].". During the 2004 ALCS, Damon was in a bit of a slump, getting on base much less often than he had been during the regular season and the ALDS. In a 1992 interview with Barbara Walters, then-Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin was asked what became of the man. I scared some of the people, seeing a caveman racing after cars," said Damon in a Providence newspaper article early in 2004. The People's Republic of China government, if it knows, isn't saying much. At night I'd wait out there and when a car came by I would race the car home, so I think I can go at least 25 miles an hour. In Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now, Jan Wong writes that the man is still alive in hiding in mainland China.

"I live on a street (in the Orlando area) where the speed limit is 25 miles an hour and the police enforce it. In a speech to the President's Club in 1999, Bruce Herschensohn — former deputy special assistant to President of the United States Richard Nixon and a member of the President Ronald Reagan transition team — reported that he was executed 14 days later; other sources say he was killed by firing squad a few months after the Tiananmen Square protests. As a part of his exercise routine, Johnny admits to pursuing cars from one end of his block to the other on foot. What has happened to Wang following the demonstration is equally obscure. He regrew the beard and it remained for the rest of the season. Shortly after the incident, British tabloid the Sunday Express named him as Wang Weilin, a 19-year-old student; however, the veracity of this claim is dubious. The proceeds from the event went to benefit literacy programs in conjunction with the Boston public library. Little is publicly known of the man's identity.

On May 21, 2004, Johnny shaved his beard in a charity event sponsored by the Gillette razor company. It headlined hundreds of major newspapers and news magazines and was the lead story on countless news broadcasts around the world. The song received generally poor reviews, but can still be currently heard as part of the soundtrack for EA Sports' MVP Baseball 2005 video game. The striking still and motion photography of the small man standing alone before a line of very large tanks reached international audiences practically overnight. Even Bronson Arroyo was seen with a shirt that proclaimed, "What curse? We got Jesus on our side." Arroyo and "Jesus" helped record vocals to the Dropkick Murphys song Tessie before the season. Finally, anxious onlookers pulled the man down and absorbed him into the crowd and the tanks continued on their way. Sales of t-shirts that read "W.W.J.D.D." (for "What would Johnny Damon do?") and "Johnny is my homeboy" were robust. Reports of what were said to the driver vary, including "Why are you here? My city is in chaos because of you"; "Go back, turn around, and stop killing my people"; "Go away".

(Some people also drew comparisons to the late Jim Morrison, the lead singer of The Doors.) Fans with center-field seats at Fenway Park began showing up with fake beards and wigs to support their favorite center fielder. After about half an hour of blocking the tanks, the man climbed up onto the top of the lead tank and had a conversation with the driver. His new look, probably coupled with the runaway success of the recently-released Mel Gibson film, The Passion of the Christ, inspired fans and sportswriters to draw good-natured comparisons between his appearance and that of Jesus. In response, the front tank attempted to drive around the man, but the man repeatedly stepped into the path of the tank. So by the time for the 2004 season to begin, he had an uncharacterstic big bushy beard and shoulder length hair. As the tanks came to a stop, he appeared to be trying to wave them away. The headaches came to disrupt his life so much that he stopped shaving and having his hair cut. He appeared to be holding two bags of some sort, one in each hand.

For the entire off season after this injury, Damon suffered extremely painful migraine headaches, which he said came every afternoon around two oclock. The man stood unwavering and alone in the middle of the road as the tanks approached him. For several weeks thereafter, Damon continued to be very disoriented, as even today, Damon has a "spotty" recollection of Game 3 of the 2003 Championship Series against arch rivals the New York Yankees. The incident ironically took place on the Chang An Da Dao, or "Great Avenue of Everlasting Peace", just a minute away from the Gate of Heavenly Peace, which leads into the Forbidden City, Beijing, on June 5, 1989, the day after the Chinese government began cracking down violently on the protests. When he came to, Damon was completely disoriented, believing that he was still playing for his old team, the Oakland Athletics. The photo was taken by Jeff Widener, a member of Associated Press. Damon lay on the field unconscious for approximately five minutes. Tank man or The Unknown Rebel is the nickname of the anonymous man who became internationally famous when he was filmed and photographed standing before a line of seventeen or more tanks during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 in the People's Republic of China.

His long hair and beard actually came from an unlikely cause - his head on collision with Damian Jackson during the 2003 playoffs. Damon gained some notoriety for the prominent beard and long, uncut hairstyle he brought with him to spring training in the 2004 season, contrasting with his previously clean-cut appearance. According to Damon's autobiography, he was only the 4th leadoff batter in the history of Major League Baseball to ever drive in more than 90 runs in a season. At the plate, he batted .304 with 20 home runs and 94 RBIs, and showed an improved patience while batting.

During the 2004 season, Damon established himself as among the premier lead-off hitters and center fielders in the game today. On June 27, 2003, Damon joined a very exclusive group of Major League Baseball players by getting three base hits in one inning in a game against the Florida Marlins. He bats and throws left-handed. He played for the Royals from 1995 to 2000, and spent 2001 with the Oakland Athletics before coming to Boston.

Phillips High School; he was the 35th pick overall. He was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the first round of the 1992 amateur draft out of Orlando Dr. He 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. His mother Yome is of Thai descent and his father Jimmy is white; they met while his father was serving as a sergeant in the United States Army in Vietnam.

Johnny David Damon (born November 5, 1973 in Fort Riley, Kansas) is an outfielder in Major League Baseball with the Boston Red Sox.
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