Johnny Damon walked into the Tigers' clubhouse Monday morning, put down his bags, and immediately started hugging new teammates. He went to the back fields at Tigertown and chatted up fans along the way, then started taking hacks like he had been preparing to report here all along.

It was a wild offseason saga for Damon in a market he didn't expect, and it didn't end up with Damon's first choice. In the end, though, he seemed pretty comfortable ending up a Tiger after signing a one-year, $8 million contract.

"When we realized that [New York] wasn't going to work out, I knew this was where I wanted to be," Damon said Monday. "I wanted to be here five years ago."