He Might Turn Into Baseball’s Samson

“Hair’s Johnny,” the New York Post headline blared this week after the New York Yankees signed center fielder Johnny Damon.

Well, that’s one attention-grabber that can’t be used anymore.

On Friday, Damon, bowing to the wishes of team owner George Steinbrenner, had his beard shaved in a New York salon and also lost what Newsday’s Johnette Howard had called “his fabulous shimmering, chestnut-brown mane of shoulder-length hair.”

It was clearly a case of hair today, gone tomorrow, and that did not please another Newsday scribe, Shaun Powell.

“If Damon doesn’t hit around .300, smack a few dozen doubles and score 100 runs next season, you’ll know why,” Powell wrote. “He was a good player in Kansas City and Oakland and when he first arrived in Boston, but his game and his appeal took off two years ago when he showed up at spring training looking like Bigfoot from the beard up.”

Powell added, “Those who sign up for the Yankees also sign away their soul.”

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More hair: In Boston, Red Sox fans are seething over Damon’s defection, ignoring the fact that their team didn’t even try to match the Yankees’ four-year, $52-million offer.

The price on Damon-related souvenirs was cut quicker than his locks, but takers were few and far between.

“A lot of customers said burn ‘em,” storeowner Mike Repstein of Medford, Mass., told the Boston Herald.

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Trivia time: Which horse made racing history in 2005 by winning the Melbourne Cup for the third year in a row?

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It matters not: Seattle plays the Indianapolis Colts today and, as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Art Thiel explains, the Seahawks “instead of bad enough are good enough not to care.”

In other words, it’s a meaningless December game with a difference for the Seahawks, who usually are left for dead at this point but instead already are assured a playoff spot.

“The birdhats fit in this scenario like Danny DeVito in the low post,” Thiel said.

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Out of place: Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, in Sin City for Thursday’s Las Vegas Bowl, was surprised to find Brigham Young there to play California.

“BYU is a Mormon school,” Ostler wrote, “and if you want to explain what Mormons are against, you simply would kind of sweep your hand Vanna White-style at the neon glow of Las Vegas.”

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Levy-tation: Quarterback Steve Levy lifted the Golden Bears to a 35-28 victory over BYU in only his second start. In his first start, he had defeated Stanford.

“Winning two big games with a guy like Levy at quarterback is like winning the Indy 500 in your family minivan,” Ostler said.

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Trivia answer: Makybe Diva, ridden by Glen Boss.

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And finally: Noting that New York Jet receiver Wayne Chrebet has stepped away after 11 NFL seasons, Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times said, “In a touching retirement ceremony, the team plans to fly in ex-teammate Keyshawn Johnson just to throw him the damn gold watch.”