From the New York Daily News’ Sam Borden

Johnny Damon helped the Red Sox break the Curse of the Bambino, but could his own defection to the Bronx be the start of a new hex?

His father certainly thinks so.

In a phone interview with the Daily News yesterday, Damon’s dad said he wasn’t particularly surprised to see his son end up in pinstripes and warned that Sox officials will lament the day they let Damon go.

“Mark it down: It’s going to be another Babe Ruth,” Jimmy Damon told The News from his Florida home. “They sent Johnny off just like they sent off Babe Ruth. It’s going to be another big, big mistake. They made the biggest mistake of their lives.”

Replied Keith Olbermann earlier today on ESPN Radio, “Now you know what to get Jimmy Damon for Christmas. A copy of ‘The Baseball Encyclopedia’.”

In a move that should fail to redress the balance of power in the AL East, the Red Sox have signed Randy Johnson’s former NY battery mate John Flaherty.