a blast from the past!
Yesterday was a great day! I got to hang out with (and photograph) some current friends and a friend from the past! For those who know baseball you probably recognize the guy on the left (Johnny Damon – NY Yankees) – but, if you really know baseball you might know about the guy on the right. His name is Danny Allie . . . Danny was JD’s high school baseball coach, but what’s REALLY ironic is that Danny was my very first football coach and one of my first baseball coaches!
Some of my most valuable “life” lessons I learned from that guy! It was awesome spending time with Danny yesterday – I hadn’t seen him in about 14 or 15 years!!! I’ve known Johnny since I was about 19 years old and he was 16! Danny introduced Johnny to me back around 1990 because JD was trying to decide between entering the major league baseball draft and going to the U. of Florida (where I was playing football at the time). Danny asked me to meet JD to impart some of my very young and very limited wisdom and I said “of course”. Johnny and I were both kids at the time but what struck me that day and what has stayed with me until this day is that Johnny referred to me as “sir” throughout that entire first conversation. At the time I was shocked that a 16-year-old would call a 19-year-old “sir”, but it just speaks to JD’s character and upbringing. Oh, and in case you were wondering what my advice was to JD way back then – I told him that I thought he should go to college . . . ummm, I think he was wise not listening to me . . .
So, Johnny asked if I could come by to capture some images during his photo session for Sports Illustrated for Kids! And, of course, that’s why Danny was there, too . . . JD with his high school baseball coach. It looks like it’s going to be a great pictorial!
Johnny needed some shots to post on his brand new website that was put together for his foundation, the Johnny Damon Foundation (johnnydamonfoundation.com). He is involved with several charities and he really hasn’t changed much as a person since our first meeting about 16 years ago! He’s a guy who wants to give back to the community and a genuinely nice guy . . . check out his site and support his causes, if you can – they’re all worthwhile charities!
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