Ask Johnny Damon who is the biggest inspiration in his life and the 34-year-old New York Yankees centre- fielder promptly replies, “My inspiration is right here. My parents were great to me. They worked so much and got so little.”

Then he embraced his mother Yome, a tanned Thai lady from whom Damon inherited his cheekbones. “She is very fast. Now you know why I am fast,” Damon proudly said of Yome, who was an athlete when she was young.

Those who don’t know him may think that the parental connection was Damon’s rhetoric to please his fans in Thailand. But people who know his family all said the connection was real. And his mother is a reason for him to come back. “I am happy to come back. I think Bangkok is a much bigger city than I thought. There are markets on every corner. That’s very special ... the place where my mom grew up.”

After all, when Damon had a chance to play for a Major League club for the first time, he called his mother, who vividly remembered the date. “It was Aug 11, 1995. Then I knew that my dream was coming true,” recalled Yome.

Damon could pass for any foreign visitor on Bangkok’s streets. But such anonymity is not the case in the United States, where his status is equivalent to another half-Thai superstar, golfer Tiger Woods.

When he was still with the Red Sox in 2004, Damon hit two home runs to beat the Yankees and then went on to clinch the World Series, ending the 86-year championship drought, since Yankees’ Babe Ruth left.

In Dec 2005, Damon signed a four-year, US$52-million contract with the Yankees.

Did he have any regrets about leaving the Red Sox? “No, I am not the kind of guy who looks back and think what should have been.”

Damon ‘came home’ on a personal mission to promote the game in Thailand. “It’s important for me to come back and see my heritage, to promote my Thai ancestry and promote the game of baseball,” he said.

He had planned to return for some time but he could not make it. In 2004, the Red Sox were involved in the World Series. In 2005, he was a free agent and looking for a club. In 2006, his wife got pregnant.

Although baseball is not popular in Thailand, Damon was impressed when he watched Thai kids practised the sport. He believes Thais have the potential to excel in baseball. “They have strong arms and good hands. It’s fun to watch.”

Although it was his first trip to Thailand since he was two years old, Damon says he still identifies himself with Thailand the Kingdom through his mum. “I identify myself through my mother. She’s a very strong woman who has worked very hard to develop me as a man.”

Yome recalled that whenever Damon got any bumps or bruises, she would treat him with Tiger Balm or Monkey Balm from Thailand. Now Damon puts Thai balm on his children in the same way his mother did when he was young.

Yome met Damon’s dad Jimmy, a US soldier, when he was stationed in Thailand in the late 1960s. Later on, Damon’s family moved back to the US. Damon was born in Kansas. He visited Thailand only twice, when he was six months and two years old. (By JEERAWAT NA THALANG In Bangkok/ The Nation/ AsiaNews)