Former Boston Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon made an appearance on a Tampa Bay area radio station and said that the players in Boston should have done a better job of the policing themselves in the locker room rather than waiting for Francona to do it for them.
"Terry Francona to me is a great manager, but sometimes you just need players in the clubhouse to also help smooth things out," Damon said. "The players probably should have known a bit better to respect the game a bit. But there are teams I've been on before who have tried to get a rally going -- obviously the guys who aren’t playing in the game. But it’s unfortunate. I think Jon Lester called it a ‘witch hunt,’ trying to hit the blame game.
Damon also pointed out the difference between the 2004 Red Sox drinking in the clubhouse before Game 7 of the ALCS and the widely reported alcohol consumption on this years team, citing that the '04 team had such great chemistry and used it as a bonding experience.
"The thing is, in 2004 we had such a great chemistry in the locker room that people had each other’s backs," he said. "If the media was blowing up a player, we had guys like Kevin Millar or guys like myself, Bill Mueller who would step up and take the bullet and protect players, and that’s very important to a team.