Library patrons send ex-Sox player packing

Johnny Damon is no longer welcome in the Waltham Public Library -- at least not his poster encouraging children to read.

The American Library Association poster will be removed from the Young Adults Room after library patrons voted, 40 to 13, to take it down. Damon signed with the New York Yankees Dec. 20, earning him the enmity of Red Sox fans everywhere.

Compared with some of the suggestions posted on the young adults section's web page, Damon is lucky his fate wasn't worse. Among the comments: ''Tear it down and burn it," ''Tear it down and shred it," and, from one particularly emphatic former fan, ''Remove it! Tear it in half! Step on it! Spit on it! And send it to him!"

Laura Bernheim, the young adult-reference librarian, decided instead to follow a kinder suggestion and send it to a library in New York. ''It's probably not good to encourage destruction," Bernheim said.

Johnny's new home will be in the library of Public School 138 in Queens, where ''the kids are huge Johnny Damon fans," and apparently don't mind that he's depicted in his old Red Sox uniform.

STEPHANIE V. SIEK