MLB playoffs 2018: Is Johnny Damon rooting for New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox in ALDS?

Th New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox meet in the best-of-five 2018 American League Division Series. Game 1 is Friday, October 5, 2018 (10/5/18) at Fenway Park in Boston, Mass. It’s their first playoff meeting since the 2004 American League Championship Series, which the Red Sox won in seven games.

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Former Yankees center fielder Johnny Damon has a choice to make.

Is he rooting for the Yankees or Red Sox in the 2018 ALDS?

Damon won his first World Series title with Boston in 2004, as one of the “idiots” who led the Red Sox to their first championship in 86 years (and doing it by driving a stake through the hearts of Yankees fans as part of the historic ALCS comeback).

Damon left Boston after 2005, and signed a four-year deal with the Yankees.

He won his second World Series title in 2009, during Damon’s final season in pinstripes.

So who is Damon pulling for this year? He shared that answer with TMZ:

“New York’s my team,” Johnny tells TMZ Sports. “The Yankees, that’s who I want to win.”

…

“I think [the Yankees] upset them,” Damon says.

Yanks’ ALDS roster

The Yankees and Red Sox meet in the playoffs on Friday for Game 1 of the ALDS. It’s their first playoff meeting since Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS, when Boston completed its historic comeback.

Damon had a huge role in that game, belting two home runs, including a grand slam in the second inning.

Damon is one of three players in the last 75 years who have won World Series titles with both the Red Sox and Yankees.

The others are pitcher Ramiro Mendoza (New York, 1996, 1998-2000 and Red Sox, 2004) and infielder Eric Hinske (Red Sox, 2004 and Yankees, 2009).

Go back a little further, and you find at least one other player to double-dip: Babe Ruth. He won three with the Red Sox (1915, 1916, 1918) and four with the Yankees (1923, 1927, 1928, 1932).

Mike Rosenstein may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @rosenstein73. Find NJ.com on Facebook.