Former Sox 'idiot' sets off library bidding war
Former Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon may have been rechristened ''Johnny Who?" by some Boston-area baseball fans, but he's fast finding followers in his new home, New York. Just ask Waltham librarian Laura Bernheim.
Bernheim is playing matchmaker between local libraries that no longer want a literacy poster depicting the self-proclaimed ''idiot" in his Red Sox uniform and their counterparts in Yankee country.
It started with a single American Library Association poster that hung in the young adult section of the Waltham Public Library, showing Damon in his Red Sox uniform and clutching a copy of the book, ''A Trip to the Beach." When Damon signed with the Yankees last fall, Bernheim decided to poll patrons on whether the poster should stay.
''I thought it would be a funny little thing, and I'd get like, 10 people voting," said Bernheim.
Instead, she had a total of 53 voters -- both children and adults -- 40 of whom urged her to send Johnny packing. Rather than follow some of the harsher suggestions -- which included rather torturous methods of poster disposal -- Bernheim opted to give it away. She sent out a note on an e-mail listserve of fellow Young Adult librarians to see if any New Yorkers wanted it. The first librarian to respond, from Public School 138 in Rosedale, Queens, got Waltham's Damon poster.
But Bernheim's query had also been posted to a New York City public schools e-mail list. As of Tuesday, six New York-area school libraries had e-mailed Bernheim asking for posters.
''I posted on a Massachusetts listserve to see if anyone else wanted to give any of their posters," Bernheim said last week as a new e-mail arrived from New York. ''Oh my gosh, I just got another one. This is insane."
Two area libraries have answered the call for donations. The Wayland Public Library's poster is on its way to Woodhaven School in Queens, and one from the Stoneham Public Library is heading to Midwood High School in Brooklyn.
''I'm not getting as much of a response as I would like. I think a lot of people threw it out right away," said Bernheim.
The formerly shaggy-coiffed baseball star is the only Red Sox player, former or current, to have his mug on a READ poster, according to Larra Clark, a spokeswoman for the American Library Association. So far, there aren't any plans to feature, say, new Sox center fielder Coco Crisp. But readers are encouraged to make suggestions through the association's website, www.ala.org.
Clark said she's not sure of the exact number of celebrities, notables, and athletes that have posed for the posters since their genesis in 1985, but estimates it to be in the hundreds. The stars donate their time and the right to use their image, and they choose the book with which they want to pose. Bill Cosby was the first. The current best-seller is one depicting Orlando Bloom, holding a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien's ''Lord of the Rings." Other posters feature singer Enrique Iglesias, book character Emily the Strange, tennis great Serena Williams,
''We want to make sure we reflect the diversity of this country and the diversity of its people," Clark said.
And that includes both Red Sox and Yankees fans.
Stephanie V. Siek can be reached at ssiek@globe.com. 
