I'm really hoping that Johnny Damon shows up and is really healthy,

[Damon] said he was climbing the walls. He said he feels a little better,

I'm not interested in making the Damon-Crisp comparison because I don't think it's really pertinent or fair. This kid's at a different time in his career. ... We're going to see probably the best years of his career.

Having a healthy Jason, having Johnny Damon, the second year with Robbie [Cano] -- there are a lot of different ingredients here. There's a little different swagger here this year.

I think he's hoping, if everything went well, he could be walking without crutches by the All-Star break. Then he could maybe start coming around on an everyday basis. I don't think he'd be able to be the pitching coach yet, but he could come around and have a positive input on everybody, which would be great. I think he really misses being in uniform.

I talked to Johnny and talked to [team medical director] Dr. [Thomas] Gill just now, and Dr. Gill said he's already improving, which is real good news. I don't doubt this will be a few games, but that's a heck of a lot better than the rest of the year.