“This is where I wanted to be from Day 1,” he told reporters at his coming out news conference. “I’m sorry it took so long.”

Damon sounded like playing in New York for the past four seasons was just a hiccup in his journey from Boston to Detroit.

Apparently, Damon’s speech writer isn’t aware of the economic climate assailing this country nowadays.  Damon complained that he was offered a pay cut by the Yankees after having what anyone would call a great season.

“We’re coming off a great year and you’re told you’ve gotta take a pay cut,” Damon said to the media present. “You’re kind of like, ‘A pay cut? What the heck?’ It’s a little humbling.”

“You’re like, ‘Wow, is that what they really think of me? Or what I do for the ballclub?’ I did a lot for the ballclub. I even recruited (free agents) for those guys. I did everything.”

Talk about losing touch with reality.  Does Damon realize there are people who have been out of work for years, losing their homes, businesses and having trouble putting food on the table or in their stomachs?  How anyone could complain about being offered $14 million for two years, playing what in essence is a kid’s game, is ridiculous.

Gee, Johnny what were the Yankees thinking?

Maybe Damon should have spoken to Andy Pettitte before turning down the Yankees offer or making these insensitive statements.

In 2009, Pettitte took a sizable reduction in pay when the Yankees offered him a 1-year, $5 million contract to stay in the Bronx.  Pettitte’s salary in 2008?  $16 million.

However, Pettitte had to weigh out what was most important to him.  Turn down the offer and move on or accept it and remain in pinstripes.  Pettitte chose the latter.

“I had to eat a lot of pride,’’ Pettitte said in an interview this past Friday in the New York Post. “But they gave me a chance to make $5 million more in incentives.’’

Pettitte responded by having one of his better seasons over the past four seasons.  After going 14-8 with a 4.16 ERA and 4-0 with a 3.58 ERA in the playoffs the Yankees rewarded Andy with a 1-year, $11.75 million contract to stay in New York.

After turning down the Yankees initial offer Damon remained on the market while the Yankees went looking elsewhere.  After trading Curtis Granderson (Detroit Tigers), resigning Pettitte, signing Nick Johnson (Florida Marlins) and trading for Javier Vazquez (Atlanta Braves) there wasn’t enough money to interest Damon.

“I was in the same position and I could see it coming,’’ Pettitte said about the smaller pot of money. “That’s where I was last year. You need to be careful in that situation.’’

Damon and his agent Scott Boras overplayed their hand with the Yankees and got burned.  If Detroit hadn’t offered this one-year deal what then?  Damon would probably still be sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring.

After the season was completed, the playoffs and World Series over Damon made it clear where he wanted to play.

On November 23 Damon was contacted by the New York Daily News and was quoted as saying,

“I want to continue to be on a team that can win and to play in front of great fans – and we know that the Yankees fill both of those,” Damon said. “I think everyone knows my desire to come back. Still, every time I’ve been a free agent, I’ve ended up switching teams. It’s the nature of the beast. If people are interested, I’m going to listen.”

In another interview with Andrew Marchand of ESPN 1050 Radio in New York Damon told him, “I know where I want to be next year.  I want to be here in New York.”

If Damon would’ve stepped back and looked at the big picture instead of having a myopic view he would probably be a Yankee today.

Perhaps, Yankees’ General Manager Brian Cashman summed it up best.

“When we signed him (for four years, $52 million), he was playing center field, a premium position, and the market was high. Now he’s a left fielder, he’s 36, in a collapsed market. Why would he not expect to take a pay cut?”

Hopefully, for Damon his ego didn’t get the best of him, because he is going to have to go through all of this again next year.  The Tigers, in addition to Damon, got highly touted prospect Austin Jackson from the Yankees in the Granderson trade.  Jackson will get a year in the Tiger organization and will be ready to go in 2011.  Damon will be 37, and probably looking for a new employer.  For the difference of $2 million ($8 million x 2) Damon let the Yankees slip through his fingers.

Damon will be missed, but he is not irreplaceable.  If the new guys in pinstripes can play and hit up to their projected potentials Damon’s departure will be a distant memory.

In the end Johnny Damon will again wear the number 18 on his back, but he’ll wish he was playing for the number 28 in October.

“Despite where we are in the standings the quest for a championship continues,” said Manuel, obviously referring to next year and the future and as to why he had a brief meeting with his slumping team with three weeks of games remaining.

The Marlins would sweep the three-game series embarrassing the Mets 13-4 in the finale and in the final few innings Citi Field was almost desolate.  Once again many no-shows in the announced crowd of 37,620 and those who remained saw sloppy baseball. So perhaps Manuel called the meeting because he has lost control of his team?

“The effort for the most part has been there,” said Manuel. “It’s some of those little things. I don’t think as a group, individually yes.”  But the Mets as a whole have resembled a team that could care less about their future, especially the past few games against the Marlins.

New York fell 16 games under .500 at (62-78) for the first time since finishing 71-91 in 2004.  Florida the past two years came to town and was responsible for the two Mets collapses in September. This year their visit in September was making sure they stayed in the NL East pennant race.

So the Mets proved to not be the spoilers. Instead they pitched well, hit home runs and saw the Mets lack of focus on the field get them more runs. Starter Bobby Parnell walked two straight batters with the bases loaded and Anderson Hernandez made an error that put Florida on the board early.

And later on in the game Angel Pagan blundered again when he forgot how outs there were when he was on base and was doubled up/  Pagan has been hitting well, three more hits and a 10-game hitting streak but there have been constant mistakes on the bases and some costly errors in the outfield.

The Mets as a team are planning ahead to the future, and Pagan is one of those individuals that Manuel has cause for concern. He could be a quality fourth outfielder next season but the mental mistakes, or lack of focus could put him out of their plans as the team tries to rebuild.

“There are a lot of positive things he does unfortunately it’s unacceptable,” said Manuel about Pagan’s obvious lack of focus on the bases. Last week on the Mets last road trip, Pagan made similar mistakes on the bases that proved to be costly. Manuel has not pointed the blame individually at Pagan and the Mets outfielder realizes it has to get better before it gets worse.

Said Pagan about his blunders of late “Right now I am having a tough time on the bases. “That can happen to anybody. I have to keep my head up. I am willing to keep working at it and getting it right. I am having a rough time and will be the first to admit it.  All I can do is come back the next day and get it right.”

But the Mets can’t afford to continue losing focus, even if Manuel calls another team meeting in the final weeks.  They want to finish with some respectability because in all probability, if they don’t, next season the novelty of a new ballpark will be over and Citi Field could resemble a ghost town.

Perhaps that is why Manuel had to have a meeting with his troops.  A good move to do one had this awful play been coming early in the season, but for the Mets all of this losing has been a constant thing since the month of May. Regardless, Parnell (3-8) once again pitched inconsistent baseball and that is also a concern.

“To come out of the first inning and not throw strikes is aggravating,” said Parnell who walked a career high five.  And very aggravating for the Mets once again having to play come from behind baseball that was a part of the Marlins series

Now it is on to Philadelphia and Atlanta for the Mets, games that were supposed to mean something in the standings, Instead Manuel has to try and keep his team focused on finishing with some respectability.

e-mail Rich Mancuso: Ring786@aol.com

But Redding is a realist and knows returning to this club after his one year, $2.25 million contract expires after this season is suspect at best, so the next six or so starts are a tryout, not just for the Mets, but the rest of baseball as well.

“I don’t want to say this season is cashed in, but a lot of guys will get an opportunity to see if they get brought back,” said Redding who is now 1-6 with a 6.10 ERA on the season. “I would love to be back where I can play with the team that’s 100 percent healthy for all 162.

“But that remains to be seen and if these next six weeks are an audition so be it. I am just going out there trying to do what I did tonight and however long it lasts.”

The great performance tonight doesn’t exonerate Redding for his poor pitching up to this point. In fact, other than Bernie Madoff, no one has stolen more money this season than this tomato can.

For most of the year, he has been a batting practice pitcher, putting the ball down the middle of the plate and then turning his head as it screamed out of Citi Field. He pitched flat, with no sign of improving until the Mets moved in to the bullpen after his 5-run, 2.1 inning performance against Pittsburgh back on July 2nd.

But the ‘pen did something to the 31 year-old. Instead of continuing on down the road to oblivion, Redding improved because of he was able to get ready to pitch a lot quicker.

“Sometimes as a starter you try to be too fine too early,” he said. “What the bullpen allowed me to do is get ready quickly and not worry about it. Sometimes I gave up runs where I pitched well and there were times I gave up runs when the ball was right down the middle on a tee.

“But I found out I have four pitches to throw and I have all four. The situation I was in was for one inning and now that I am back as a starter wherever I might be, I have the confidence that I can throw four pitches as a starter.”

It remains to be seen if this fringe pitcher is in the Mets plans for next year. In fact, the Redding decision is down on the list. After all, they have to make a decision on the general manager, manager, catcher, first baseman, setup man and even Gary Sheffield before the Mets figure out what to do about their barely hanging on fifth starter, who was a Fernando Nieve injury reprieve away from being released.

Yet, for one night, Redding pitched up to his contract and if he can do it over his next six or so starts, he may figure his way back in the Mets plans.

If not, maybe another team will take him.

And Redding, being a smart man, know this.

Make sense?

Life can be hard.  Baseball can be really hard.  Succeeding in baseball can be even harder.  and when you fail, you want to quit.  That’s human nature.  But… That’s where people differ.  The strong keep going; they keep trying.  The rest quit.  What’s the difference between the two groups?  Mental toughness.

Put yourself in this situation: Bottom of the ninth.  You’ve gotten two quick outs as a closer.  You’re nursing a one-run lead in a very big game.  You walk the #8 hitter on 10 pitches.  A pinch hitter comes up and smashes a first-pitch two-run home run to win the game.  You have failed.  Add to that 35,000 people saw you fail in person.  Add to that the hundreds of thousands who saw you fail on TV back in your home city.  Then throw in the media who are going to write about your failure and talk about your failure and then, at your locker, ask you about your failure.

Do you quit?  Do you run?

There are guys who hide from what happened.  They’ll go into the deep recesses of a locker room and not come out until the throng is gone.  They will feel the weight of failure, the burden of stress, the personal disappointment and it will take time for them to recover.

It is those with mental toughness, those with their heads turned on straight, who can overcome this short-term failure and understand exactly what it was: a short-term failure.  If they can understand immediately that the next night they’ll have a chance to win and make up for this night, they’ll be winning the Quitting Game.

Look back at the same example.  Remember the #8 hitter who walked on 10 pitches?  Think about his head.  He’s a #8 hitter, so that means he’s no Babe Ruth.  If he’s hitting .250, he automatically has to live with the fact that 3 out of 4 times he walks back to the bench holding his bat in his hands and holding his pride down in his chest.  This guy could have been the end of the game.  He could have gone up and let the closer beat him on 3 pitches.  But if you have a 10-pitch at bat, you’ve got two personalities battling each other.  You’ve got two guys desperate not to fail; desperate to win.  You’ve got an underdog #8 hitter who does not give up on himself, his abilities or his team.  As mentally tough as the closer needed to be in that spot, the #8 hitter had to have equal mental strength.

The pinch hitter?  He’s sat on the bench for roughly three hours watching.  He’s cold.  Sure, he’s stretched out in the hallway behind the dugout, maybe taken some hacks in the cage, but he hasn’t been playing the game at all.  He’s been a third wheel, a spectator.  Now he’s asked to insert himself and succeed.  He’s got one chance that night to not fail.  Generally, he does.  Pinch hitting is hard.  Some guys can do it and some can’t.  This guy did.  How?  His head was in the game.  And he never gave up on himself.

Former 15-year MLB catcher Brent Mayne makes a few comments about mental toughness in his most recent blog entry, Man, This Weather Sucks. Check it out.  You learn a different perspective about the mental game as it pertains to playing in weather that blows, figuratively and literally.  Brent’s main (get the pun?) lesson? “Complaining about the conditions isn’t going to help your cause. Matter of fact, it’ll take you out of the game before it ever starts. Why waste energy on a fight you’re not going to win?”

There are two fights a player can win, the game on the field and the game in their heads.  If you can beat the fear of failure and never give up on yourself, quitting won’t even become an option.  It’ll be something those other guys do.  And it’ll be the reason why you win.

Jimmy Scott is probably the greatest pitcher you’ve never heard of.  Visit Jimmy Scott’s High & Tight to read more from Jimmy and guests Desi Relaford, Eric Valent & Cassidy Dover.  You’ll also hear a new interview every Monday morning with former MLB players, agents, wives and others; giving new outlooks on this great game we call Baseball.  Go there now to hear Jimmy’s latest interviews with Rollie Fingers, Desi Relaford, Brent Mayne and MLB Umpire Hunter Wendelstedt.  You can follow Jimmy on Twitter or Facebook.

Sure, the ping of the metal bats sounded strange and the Mets staff was just as confused patrons trying to get around, but this was baseball back in Queens, just like it oughta be.

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Running his first Spring Training, the Mets manager gets a chance to put his mark on the club as he put the team through  various drills and stresses the Manuel brand of baseball.

“I think when you acquire guys that you felt that you were lacking, an area that you were lacking in, and then you acquire an excess in that area, you’ve got to feel pretty good,” Manuel said to reporters in Port St. Lucie as the Mets opened camp. “Not necessarily a stamp of any type, just making sure that your team understands the fundamentals, leaves healthy and know how to play the game. And if you have good players, you should have some success.”

Manuel will be doing some things different from his predecessor Willie Randolph. Seeing a lack of fundamentals, the manager will stress those aspects to his club during the next six weeks.  He will also experiment, saying he will put much maligned second baseman Luis Castillo in the leadoff position, while using Jose Reyes in different parts of the order.

“Spring training you have some freedom to look at things differently,” he said. “And you have to try to do everything you can to try and exercise that time frame where you can look at things differently and say, he might look good there, and see what it might look like without it costing you, why certain things are being done.”

Mainly though, Manuel wants to communicate more with his players, be it the stars like Reyes, David Wright, or Carlos Delgado, all the way down the last reserve on the roster.

“There’s going to be a lot of conversations,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of conversations on those different things. Once the games start, there will be a lot of applause and celebrations for the little things that are done in the course that didn’t manifest itself statistically. There will be a big emphasis on those things, a huge emphasis.

“And also, for me, I will have to find some way to reward that versus rewarding a guy going 2 for 4, or he’s hot, but maybe he didn’t the things that I thought were necessary for us to win the game and a guy went 0 for 4 and did those things, well, I might play the guy who went 0 for 4 because he did the things that I thought were conducive to winning versus a guy who everybody said, he’s hitting .500. These types of things. It’s kind of a ticklish situation, but I think it’s a necessity for what needs to be done for this particular group.”

Manuel is trying to prevent the 2009 Mets suffering the same fate as the Met teams of the last two seasons. He knows it’s a 162 game season and the Mets need to strive through that. If this club is to return to the playoffs, then he says the emphasis needs to be on winning, rather than individual stats. So if that means Reyes hits third with Castillo leading off, then so be it.

“I think that message is so critical, especially for teams in New York,” Manuel said. “They care about the game and the W and the Ls versus how you do or how many you hit or how many you strike out. I think if I can get that point across, or if my staff can get that point across, then I would feel very good and very confident with the talent going into a full season.”