Johnny Damon and Six Other Red Sox-Turned Yankees

The recent coverage of Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez signing with the AL East team that was otherwise raided by their two chief rivals this off-season got me to thinking. Damon, once considered the equivalent of Jesus in Boston, but later nicknamed Judas, has an interesting distinction in common with six other players in baseball history.

Of course, I'm not the first person to mention this, but Damon is one of seven players who played in and won World Series with both the Red Sox and the Yankees. Now, let me clarify this, because if you try to Google the answer to this question, you'll probably find a list quite a bit longer than I'm suggesting. I'm talking about players who actually played in a World Series won by the Yankees and a World Series won by the Red Sox.

So, I'll start off with a little hint by telling you of one person this rules out. Ramiro Mendoza was with the Yankees for all four of their World Series victories between 1996 and 2000—although he actually only pitched in two of them—and he was a member of the 2004 World Champion Red Sox. He even pitched in the ALCS for the Sox that year, against the Yankees, but he did not pitch in the Series. I honestly don't know if he was dropped from the roster or if he simply didn't pitch, but he's not one of the answers to this question.

In addition to Damon, can you name the other six? Of course you can, with a little internet research, but let's see how many we can come up with without looking them up first. Oh, and, when you do finally decide to look them up, I suggest you peruse the rosters of Red Sox World Series champions rather than those of the Yankees. It will probably take you about 78% less time.

One last interesting tidbit about this short list of players...every one of them won their first World Series with the Red Sox.