Sports

Paul Sokoloski

It’s different these days for Johnny Damon.

No longer is he that fun-loving, self-proclaimed “idiot” whose happy-go-lucky attitude off the field and hard-nosed play on it infected all of Boston and carried the Red Sox to their first world championship of the modern era.

Oh, he’s still as heady as they come, and nobody has more heart on a baseball field.

“That’s one of the guys I will always root for,” said Phillies pitcher Pedro Martinez, a teammate of Damon’s in Boston who squared off against his old buddy in Game 6 of the World Series on Wednesday. “He’s going to give you a battle. He’s not going to get rattled.”

But Damon’s not going to get as goofy as he was in the old days.

He’s with the New York Yankees now.

And the pressure to win with the Yankees, especially when they get to a World Series, could compress anyone’s laughter.

“It’s totally different,” Damon said. “With Boston, everybody expected us to lose. We just went out and played and had fun. People here expect us to be great all the time.”

He’s been great in this World Series.

Carrying a .381 batting average into Wednesday night, Damon has been the biggest reason why the Yankees came into Game 6 at Yankee Stadium looking to wrap up their 27th world championship.

With five runs scored, four RBI and two doubles, he’s been carrying New York on his back.

“Just trying to help our club win,” Damon said. “I’ve been trying to battle my whole career, trying to have great at-bats. You try to be as good as you can at the moment.”

They say great players play big in the biggest moments.

Nobody’s played better than Damon on this World Series stage.

Chase Utley may share it with Damon, after the Phillies second baseman belted a record-tying five home runs in the series.

But Damon’s more about putting an opponent’s back to the wall than driving hits over one.

And his nine-pitch at-bat against Brad Lidge in the ninth inning of Game 4 may go down as the signature moment of this World Series. Some of those pitches may have struck softer men out.

“There were probably one or two sliders below the (strike) zone that were fouled off that are normally pretty good pitches for me,” Lidge said. “I felt real good. It felt like one of those innings that was going to be a good, quick inning.

“All of a sudden, he’s on third base.”

Damon got to third with one of the smartest plays in World Series history, when he stole second base against a Phillies defense shifted far to the right side of the infield and continued to third base – which nobody was covering.

Moments later, Damon scored the go-ahead run in a 7-4 Yankees victory that put control of the series in New York’s hands.

“I still had some of my young legs behind me,” said Damon, who turns 36 today.

He was young again during this whole playoff run for the Yankees.

In the American League Championship clincher, with Yankee fans starting to fret about the possibility of the team blowing a 3-1 series lead, it was Damon who loosened them up. His two-run single gave the Yankees and early 2-0 lead in a 5-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels that put the Yankees in the World Series.

Once Damon got there, he hardly let up – until pulling a calf muscle early in Game 6.

His two-run double in the fifth inning Saturday gave the Yankees a 5-3 lead and quieted a Philadelphia crowd excited for an early 3-0 Phillies lead. The next night, his Damon had two hits and accounted for two runs even before he broke the Phillies’ hearts by refusing to break against Lidge.

And the Phillies may have salvaged a game at home Monday, but not before Damon had three hits with two runs scored and an RBI, almost clinching the world championship by himself in Philadelphia. He was the one standing on second base with the potential tying run at the plate when the game ended.

“He’s a big-game player,” Martinez said. “He’s a great player.”

It is never a surprise when a guy as sharp and as special as Damon plays his way onto center stage. But even in a town that expects greatness, he’s taking the standard for success to another level.

Paul Sokoloski is a Times Leader sports columnist. You may reach him at 970-7109 or e-mail him at psokoloski@timesleader.com.