This time in 2004, I would have to say that Johnny Damon was probably one of my least favorite people in the world. For those of you who follow baseball with any kind of regularity, you probably know why. For those who don't, click here to learn all about the "idiots" on the Boston Red Sox in 2004.
Low and behold, Johnny Damon was the starting CF on Opening Day for the Yankees in 2006. Yes, he swapped sides in "The Rivalry" and he was good enough that he could make a positive impact on the Yankees. Damon prided himself on his consistency around the amount of games he played in every season, but there were times that he was injured and he probably should have gone on the DL.
Moving on to 2009 and what happened to be Johnny's "walk year"…. The Yanks moved to their new stadium, which also had the favorable right field porch for lefty hitters, and Damon seemed to find his groove. He made some boneheaded plays in the field plus his arm for defense is pretty much non-existent. But I figured Damon did good enough during the season that the Yanks would probably re-sign him for 2010 because he also didn't hide the fact that he loved playing in NY for the Yankees. Like many Yankees fans who were ready to kill themselves in 2004, I was waiting for Damon to showcase some signature playoff moment to help the team.
Get to the playoffs and against the Twins in the ALDS, Damon didn't do so hot with the bat. To his credit right after the Yanks swept, he worked on his hitting and hit .300 in the ALCS against the Angels and seemed primed for a great World Series with respect to his hitting. Through the 1st 3 games of the Series, Damon was hitting .167, which is not exactly stellar, which brings us to Game 4 in Philadelphia.
When Damon came up in the top of the 9th inning, he was 2 for 4 for the game. The game was tied and there were 2 outs with no one on base, and he was going against Brad Lidge, who had not blown a save at all during the 2009 playoffs in spite of his forgettable season as a closer. In the at-bat, Damon was determined to get on base and he hadn't really had that signature moment in the playoffs that made me curse him in 2004.
After 8 pitches, Damon finally found a pitch he could hit and smacked it into left field. So Mark Teixera came up, and since he was batting left and tends to pull the ball to right field, Philadelphia employed "the shift" where most of its players shifted to the right side of the diamond. That meant the person playing 3B was somewhere around the middle of the field.
As a Yankees fan who catches games fairly regularly, I am aware of the shift but forgot about it because this was a fairly big spot in the game. FOX continued to suck with its coverage and didn't say anything to viewers about the shift. What happened next had me go from a "WTF! Noooooooo!!!" moment to a matter of "Wow… cool…. Uh, what just happened" moment.
The deal is that Damon managed to steal not just one base, but two bases, in one play. But FOX's cameras didn't show the wider perspective so fans were left confused about why Damon would attempt something so brazen. This article from Sports Illustrated actually shows all of the things Damon had to figure out before executing "the play" of the 2009 World Series. Truly amazing and makes you wonder how he does such dumb things in the field.
Now we have a runner on 3B with 2 outs. Lidge was completely flummoxed and ended up hitting Teixera with a pitch, which was excellent since Teix wasn't hitting at all. That brought up A-Rod, who we've already documented was having an awesome World Series. He hits a double to put the Yanks up 5-4, and then Jorge Posada gets a hit to drive in Teix and A-Rod. Score 7-4, and yeah – Mo comes in and Yanks now one game away from winning it all.
Yes, the Yankees played 2 games after this one but it was really "game over" for the World Series after that comeback. I think this play will stick with me in the same way that David Tyree's catch will stay with me for a VERY LONG time.