The outfielder’s headaches have gone away after last season’s collision.

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) – The migraines would start pounding in Johnny Damon’s skull about two o’clock every afternoon.

For seven weeks after he banged heads with a teammate, the pain was so bad that he’d lie down and try to sleep until the headaches, lasting about 90 minutes, went away.

They ended in early December and he feels fine now. But he still can’t remember parts of playoff games after the crash in Game 5 of Boston’s American League division series at Oakland.

“I knew I got hit,” the Red Sox center fielder said. “It was pretty devastating.”

Damon collided with second baseman Damian Jackson when both raced for a popup in short center. Jackson was on the ground for a few minutes, but an unconscious Damon stayed there for nine minutes as teammates prayed.

“He was breathing real heavy but I knew he was knocked out,” right fielder Trot Nixon said. “It’s very scary.”

Four months later, Damon is the same easygoing jokester he was before the collision. The pain is gone, an offseason of golf, fishing and relaxation is over and he’s ready to return to the Red Sox leadoff spot.

” I’ve always said you have to enjoy life because it could be gone. I was going to enjoy it as much as I can,” he said .”I feel great now.”

Whether he looks great is debatable. His teammates tease him about the shoulder-length black hair he last cut more than a year ago and the new black beard.

“I love it,” Kevin Millar said with a big smile. “I walked in and started doing, “in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.’ So I’m glad he’s on our side this year.

Damon fits in with Boston’s lighthearted locker room.

“His calm energy kind of radiates throughout the clubhouse and makes everybody feel comfortable. He’s the nicest guy in the world,” Gabe Kapler said.

But all that hair?

“It’s great. Individual personalities should be celebrated,” Kapler said. “He’s very comfortable in his own skin.”

On the field, Damon has scored more than 100 runs and stolen at least 26 bases in each of the last six seasons. But he does have a tendency to overstate his speed.

Take, for example, his anecdote about an after-dark race on the Orlando street where he lives with a 25 mph speed limit.

“Once a car starts coming I’ll just race it to my house, so I know I can go at least 25,” he said with the pacing of a comedian with an audience eager to hear the punch line. “I scare the cars to speed up a little more, seeing a caveman-looking guy with long hair running at 10 or 11 at night.”

He also jokes about his offseason training and the 15 pounds he gained since last season.

“I barely touched the weights, did a couple of pushups here and there,” he said. with a grin. “I’m gaining weight the right way. I’m drinking beer.”

When the games start, Damon is very serious. And he doesn’t expect to be gun-shy when chasing fly balls or facing inside pitches.

He hustles to first base, races into gaps for long drives and hates to miss a game – even if he’s recovering from a concussion and a very sore left arm caused by IV needles during his ambulance ride from the field in Oakland.

Just five days after the collision and with his head still pounding, Damon returned for Game 3 of the AL championship series against the New York Yankees. He led off the bottom of the first with a single and scored the first run.

“My body got completely sucked out after that concussion,” he said. “Looking back, I don’t know how I even put on a uniform.”

He singled in his first three at-bats of Game 3 but was 1-for-17 the rest of the way. Had his weak left arm not kept him from pulling the ball to the right side as much as usual, the series might have ended differently.

“I think so,” Damon said. “My arm was black and blue. It was like someone took a baseball bat and just pounded my arm.”

In Game 7, he went 0-for-5 with a strikeout and four grounders to the left side. His most critical at-bat came with the Red Sox leading 4-0 in the top of the fourth with runners at first and third and one out. Instead of pulling the ball to the right side, giving the runner at third a better chance to score, he grounded to shortstop Derek Jeter for a double play.

New York went on to win 6-5 in 11 innings.

“Once you get a concussion, your strength isn’t there,” Damon said. “You just lose that adrenaline that you should never lose in the biggest games of your life.”

He did work out a bit in the offseason at Dr. Phillips High School, which he attended in Orlando. But he was left with plenty of energy when he showed up at camp Tuesday.

Damon plans to use spring training to get in shape, an approach that has worked in the past, and he’s very confident about the season.

“We have the best team out there, hands down,” he said.

And a healthy, happy and hairy center fielder.

“It just takes too long to shave,” Damon said. “If I get a whim, the hair could be gone, cut off on one side, could have a goatee, could tape it to my chest. Whatever.”

AP-ES-02-27-04 1407EST