BANGOR, Maine — A little over 10 years ago, a fun-loving band of self-proclaimed “idiots” captured the hearts of Boston Red Sox fans as they ended an 86-year drought by winning the World Series.
They also were the first team in major league history to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a seven-game series as they rallied past the archrival New York Yankees to win the American League championship.
One of the catalysts was charismatic, long-haired, bearded center fielder Johnny Damon, nicknamed the “Caveman,” who had come to the Red Sox from Oakland in 2003.
“That team had the perfect chemistry,” said a tanned and muscular Johnny Damon, now 41, who looks as though he still could patrol center field in a major league uniform.
Damon met with the media at the Four Points Sheraton in Bangor on Thursday morning in anticipation of his appearance at Husson University’s Gracie Theatre in Bangor later that night. Approximately 300 people were on hand for the question-and-answer event.
The event was sponsored by 92.9 FM The Ticket and the Allenfarm Fence company in Bangor.
In addition to his on-field production, which included a grand slam in the seventh and deciding game (a 10-3 victory) against the Yankees, Damon helped changed the attitude and chemistry in the locker room.
“We changed [the attitude] for the better. If you keep believing you’re going to lose eventually, you will,” Damon said. “But if you can change the attitude not only of the players but of the city, you tend to forget about the 86 years of misfortune.
“You stay positive,” Damon continued. “We weren’t around back then and shouldn’t be lumped into the same group of failed opportunities. You have to play the game the right way, not just sometimes. All the time.”
The grand slam highlighted a frustrating series for Damon, who had gone 3-for-29 until that point.
“All of us knew we had to do our jobs. Some guys didn’t have good games early on, like myself, but you kept trying and I was able to break through in Game 7,” Damon said.
Damon broke the hearts of Red Sox fans after the 2005 season by signing with the hated Yankees. He helped lead New York to a World Series championship in 2009.
He has incurred the occasional wrath of Red Sox fans but said it was simply a matter of the Yankees making an offer he couldn’t refuse — four years, $52 million.
“It’s a business. I know [center fielder] Jacoby Ellsbury is dealing with the same thing. Boston didn’t feel comfortable with me being their center fielder four years down the road. I still felt comfortable with my abilities,” Damon said.
He capped his four-year stay in New York by hitting .364 in the six-game World Series triumph over the Philadelphia Phillies.
“Boston loaded up the year after I became a free agent. And they’re loading up again this year,” Damon said.
Boston went on to win World Series titles in 2007 and 2013.
He said Boston will always hold a special place in his heart.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Boston fans have been great to me, especially lately.”
Damon said he expects to announce his formal retirement soon after the start of the 2015 season.
His last appearance was in 2012 when he played in 64 games and hit .222 for the Cleveland Indians, his seventh major league team during an 18-year career.
Damon is a career .284 hitter with 235 homers, 1,139 runs batted in, 1,668 runs scored, 2769 hits and 408 stolen bases. His .295 average in four seasons in Boston is the highest among all of his stops.
“The reason I haven’t done it sooner is because retirement is a long time. People change their minds. When I work out with my son (Jackson), I’ll get that itch to play. But with child No. 7 on the way, my wife (model Michelle Mangan) really needs me to be home.”
He said his 15-year-old son “has a brighter future than me. And he’s much better looking than I am. He got to see me play so much and got to learn about how to go about playing baseball. I’m very proud of him. He was very observant as a kid. He wants to step in his father’s footsteps.”
Damon said that his first year out of the game, 2013, was tough. But he has gradually accepted his fate and kept busy with his children, business ventures and his Johnny Damon Foundation, a nonprofit organization that raises money for 17 charities.
One of those is the Wounded Warrior Project, which has provided services and programs to wounded soldiers and their families.
Damon has a special place in his heart for soldiers because he was an Army brat whose father, Jimmy, is a Vietnam war veteran. Damon’s mother, Yome, is from Thailand.
“I was the first athlete to be a spokesperson for the Wounded Warrior Project,” Damon said proudly. “It has helped out so many people. We do our fair share. We have been able to put two wounded warriors in new homes built by Habitat for Humanity.”
The Johnny Damon Foundation hosts an annual golf tournament in Windermere, Florida, where he and his family reside.
Damon recently raised $20,000 for his foundation courtesy of the television show “The Celebrity Apprentice.” He was a project manager and his team won the competition against another group of celebrities to earn his foundation $20,000.
Damon said being a contestant on “The Celebrity Apprentice” was much more difficult than playing baseball.
“When you play baseball, you learn how to train, how to play the game and how to talk about the game. When you’re doing ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ they’re giving you something to do that you have no idea how to do it whether it’s serving food or knowing about a certain golf course or selling pies and stuff,” Damon said.
One of the things he was asked to do was raise money but he said the problem with that is that he had to ask his friends for money that wasn’t going to his foundation or charity of choice, Damon said.
“If your team lost, it was going to someone else’s charity,” he said. “It was real tough for me to ask my friends for money [under those circumstances].”
When asked if he would ever do “The Celebrity Apprentice” again, he initially said no.
“But I shouldn’t say that,” Damon said. “I learned how much you have to know to succeed in business. I learned branding is so important. The Trump family does that very well. I’ve also learned that people can change very easily. I’ve always said that money doesn’t change people, it just shows you how people really are.
“I just want to learn as much as I can because I know there will be plenty of business opportunities for me and I want to succeed,” Damon said.
When asked about his legacy, Damon said he wants to be remembered as a guy “who played the game the right way and cared so much about his teammates and winning.
“I never tried to pad my stats. Everybody knew I always tried to do the right things,” said Damon, who admitted that he suffered lingering effects from a concussion he suffered in a collision with second baseman Damian Jackson for several years and still occasionally gets a stiff neck that requires a trip to the chiropractor.
The questions posed by those at the Grace Theatre were wide-ranging.
When asked about Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz’s future Hall-of-Fame prospects, Damon said he should be inducted.
“He’s the best designated hitter of all time and he has won three championships,” said Damon, who also called him “one of the greatest human beings around.”
He said he was pleased to see Pedro Martinez earn a spot in the Hall of Fame and talked about the electric atmosphere at Fenway Park when Martinez walked out to the bullpen to begin warming up before the game.
He was asked about returning to baseball to try to reach the 3,000-hit plateau. Dale Duff from 92.9 The Ticket, the emcee for the event, pointed out that Damon is 52nd all-time in hits in major league history.
“I’ve never played for numbers. I played to win games and championships,” said Damon.
He was also asked about Manny Ramirez.
He called Ramirez “quirky” but said he liked him and considers him “one of the game’s greatest hitters.” He also noted that he “studied the game so much.”
Damon said it was unfortunate that Ramirez “started cheating the game” because it tarnished his accomplishments.
Ramirez violated Major League Baseball’s drug policy which earned him a 50-game suspension when he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers.