Johnny Damon excited to join Tigers

Johnny Damon expressed strong enthusiasm Monday in joining his fifth major-league team, calling Detroit "the place I wanted to be from day one."

Damon, who spent the last four seasons with the Yankees, agreed to a one-year, $8-million contract with the Tigers, ending a drawn out free agency that featured an ugly divorce from the Yankees.

Without his agent Scott Boras present at the news conference, held at the Tigers' spring-training complex, Damon was on his own in explaining why he and the Yankees, despite mutual interest, couldn't find common ground. He reiterated his and Boras' version of events, that they didn't hear from the Yankees until they were about to sign Damon's replacement Nick Johnson.

Yet Damon stressed, "I'm a Tiger now," and he said he had no hard feelings toward the Yankees.

As for his saying that he desired the Tigers "from day one"? Damon explained that he meant he wanted to join the Tigers -- because they train near his Orlando home, and because he thinks the club has a chance to contend -- after it was apparent he wouldn't be returning to the Yankees.

While Tigers owner Mike Ilitch authorized his general manager Dave Dombrowski to offer Damon two years, that offer never actually came; Damon admitted that he had been trying to convince Detroit to increase its commitment. Yet he nevertheless expressed contentment, noting that he'll have his name on the back of his jersey for the first time since he left the Red Sox in 2005.

"We're absolutely thrilled to have Johnny on board with us," Dombrowski said. "It makes us appreciably better."