Johnny Damon believes the World Series he and his New York Yankees teammates won in 2009 would be tainted if Alex Rodriguez used steroids that year, as MLB suggests.
Damon joined Jim Memolo and Todd Hollandsworth on “First Pitch” on MLB Network Radio Wednesday and was asked if he felt A-Rod using PEDs diminished the team’s World Series crown.
“I really haven’t sat down and thought that far,” Damon said, “but if that’s how he was able to hit in the postseason like he did that year, then yeah, absolutely. Then you start going and saying was anybody (else) on their team cheating.”
Damon pointed out that Rodriguez had a monster postseason that year. A-Rod went 19-for-52 (.365) with five doubles, six home runs, and 18 RBIs.
“There’s just so many different factors that determine if a team wins and A-Rod was a huge determining factor. He was the MVP of the ALCS. He played a pretty huge part.
“Unfortunately, through the years a lot of guys winning awards, they’re linked to something.”
MLB struck a deal with former Biogenesis founder Tony Bosch, who supplied them with information about the PED use of A-Rod and others. MLB has information from Bosch proving that Rodriguez used PEDs since at least 2009.
It’s pretty shocking that Damon would actually go in this direction. He knows just as well as everyone else that A-Rod wasn’t the only player in the league juicing. And if he’s willing to say the Yankees’ 2009 World Series might be tainted, then wouldn’t that call into question the 2004 World Series won by Damon’s Boston Red Sox, which were led by juicers Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz? I just don’t think you can play this game of picking and choosing whose World Series counts and whose is diminished based on who got caught and who didn’t.
Damon hit .281 with a .755 OPS that postseason for the Yanks. You can hear the clip from his interview with “First Pitch” below:
