Johnny Damon, 2x World Series Champion

Johnny how are you?

I'm doing fantastic. Thanks for having me. It's been a wonderful day here.

It was great to have you on. I know a wonderful day for New York Yankee fans as they have stretched this out just a little bit. What are your thoughts when you watch the game on why the Yankees outside of last night have had difficulty scoring runs?

Well I mean that guy standing 60 feet six inches away never wants to give up an edge. The pitching has been tough and when Aaron Judge isn't hitting your offense is not flowing but there were some great things we saw yesterday. I'm glad they broke it open so they could relax a little bit because I know they're grinding. I know what it's like to be down three games to nothing. I know that every single moment of the game matters whether or not it's an error, backing up a base, whatnot. Every single thing matters and they came out they brought their A game and I have a good feeling about this game tonight.

Hopefully they can win number two. All right major league baseball legend Johnny Damon is joining us here on the JR Sport Brief Show. When you take a look at at the Yankees and the pressure that they're under. They haven't won a championship since you were in the pinstripes in 2009. It feels like yesterday.

What is that experience like playing in New York? We saw what the fans are like. Last night a fan tried to rip a ball out of Mookie Betts glove. Yeah that was fantastic.

I don't think I've ever seen that before and it was very funny. I was just chilling watching the game with one of my friends and we both just started giggling. It was a comical but the fans are incredible and it has been 15 years and because I helped break the curse of the Bambino like if they don't win soon there's going to be a curse of Johnny Damon but I want them to win.

That's my whole thing. I want the Yankees to win. They were so great to me and my family and yeah let's hope we're winning our game number two. Oh Johnny man you kind of turned the tide. At one point in time you weren't loved by the Yankees. The Yankees and their fans hated you. You were on that Red Sox team that ultimately won a World Series. Y'all were the team that that only one that came back from an ALCS and being down 0-3. When you're in that position like the Yankees are now, did you guys even talk about it? I mean everybody in the locker room knows it but when you were Red Sox how did y'all deal with that? Well we definitely joked a lot.

We all said we weren't ready to pick our kids up from school or drop them off. We were like just ready to continue to play. You know Kevin Millar is the absolute best. He made us all do shots of Jack Daniels before game four and then we ended up doing it before every game and we won eight straight.

So uh um something has to happen. I'm not condoning that but uh the Yankees came out big last night and I feel especially with uh Garrett Cole going a special pitcher. Okay so Johnny Damon is not saying for Garrett Cole and uh you know Aaron Judge to have the shots of Jack tonight. That's not your advice.

Yeah it's not my advice. We're not in the clubhouse so whatever they do I say um bring your A game. Go drink a game.com. That's my uh hydration drink. No artificial flavors coloring and uh no forever chemicals. So we are clean.

We work. It tastes great and you always have to bring your A game for every single thing that you do just like I did for the 09 Yankees. Well let me let me ask you about A game Johnny because we see that there's so many different hydration options that exist that are out there and this is something that that you really want younger people to kind of latch onto as well because they probably don't take care of their bodies as well right?

Yeah that's absolutely true. Back in 2012 it was a very hot summer in central Florida. We had a lot of kids who were dehydrated and we lost a couple of these kids.

They died. We feel like it was uh you know the coach could have said keep running and when it's hot anything could happen but we wanted to make sure that we put the right ingredients in a human body and it actually works. A lot of the stuff they make it sound good.

Our drink is the best and I always bring my A game so everyone check it out drinkagame.com. And MLB legend Johnny Damon is here with us. When you talk about younger people and their development in the game of baseball you have seen the changes from when you played as a kid up until now. How do you feel about the development at the lower levels and how it affects big leaguers when they finally get to the top? Yeah well we are seeing a lot more injuries in the game right now and because you have to be very committed to play this game and now it's become a year-round sport and I feel like that's bad for the kids coming up.

I feel like it's bad for major league baseball players. When I played ball I pretty much got ready in February. I made sure my body rested. I never got hurt. You know I just looked at my shoulder one day. I only missed 10 games and only one time on the DL in 18 years but I think kids need to take a break or experience other sports so their body knows how to react in all different kinds of situations. I think the move is very important and yeah so take care of your body as a kid. You're going to get stronger and I know they're pushing all these leaves and all that stuff.

I think it's great. We have friends forever like my little buddies. We're still best friends but you know we did take a break. Once I got to high school that's when I started playing year-round baseball. You know spring, summer, and fall. Never during the winter. Especially for people up north. Never during the winter. Oh we don't want that freezing outside.

It's awful. Two-time World Series champ Johnny Damon is here with us on the JR sport reshow coast to coast. That's from a physical development standpoint. When you look at major league baseball even at the minor league level they're really starting to take a look at technological advancements that they could utilize. So umpires aided by you know robot eyes and what have you. What are your thoughts on where the game might go there? Well if they're if they're going off the robot eyes we need to make sure it's accurate at home because there's a lot of times we see pitches and we're like but damn that looks like a strike and it's called a ball and you're sitting at home going well this changes the outcome of the at bat and possibly the outcome of the game.

So if they're going to go robots let's do it. I know I love having the umpires and having to argue with them for them messing up and us always thinking that we are right and so I love these umpires. Joe West is a great friend of mine and all the umpires were great friends of mine but they're going to show that on tv all the time you probably don't need.

Just just have the computer on but I would rather than take it off the tv and let the umpires do their thing. We knew certain umpires who had big strike zones so you knew you were going to swing the bat and it was going to be a quick game and you knew which umpires were good and which umpires were bad which umpires were fair and which umpires you have to shut your mouth with so I love that and I would love them to take that off because I mean Maddox was very successful because he was a smart pitcher. He started on the outside corner and then it kept going further and further out and the umpire like loved it. He's throwing strike one.

What the young kids tended to do in my era they started off throwing a ball and they had to keep coming across the middle on the plate and that's when damage happened so yeah. Johnny Damon is here with us. Johnny as we start to wrap things up you talk about the strike zone. We have the two biggest stars the guys who are probably going to be MVPs and they respectively Shohei Ohtani and then also Aaron Judge they've both been struggling here in the World Series and you've played you yourself ridiculously clutch you played with David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter with Manny Rodriguez. We can go down the line.

What separates just the mentality from being able to do it or not? We know hitting a baseball is hard but some guys just always seem to do it in the big spots. Well both the Yankees and Dodgers went into the series saying do not let Aaron Judge beat you. Do not let Ohtani beat you. So they're not getting the best pitches and then there's that thought process that you're like okay are they pitching around me or are they going to give me a pitch to hit.

So there's a lot going on. I wish I could say it was easy and those guys should be crushing the ball but they're doing a great job trying to keep them off balance and that's the way the game works and you know there's still hopefully three more games to go and I know the whole world wants to see three more games so let's hope the Yankees get it tonight and then we'll see what happens. It's going to be fun to watch. Hey Johnny are you going to come back to try to get one of those Juan Soto contracts? Man I would love to man but you know I got to blame my parents for having me a little too late but I turned 51 next week and on election day I only want one thing and so let's hope for a great birthday for me. Hey listen happy almost birthday Johnny Damon November 5th tell us one more time where they can find out more information about A-game and keeping up and drinking it. Yeah good drinkagame.com Bo Jackson's on my team I have Tyler Adams I have a plethora of star power and there's a lot of great news happening soon very clean and you always have to bring your A-game every single moment of every single day. Hey Johnny appreciate the time enjoy the game tonight let's go Yankees and all the best to you okay thank you Johnny.