Red Sox Owner Cursed

Now this is bad news if you were a Red Sox fan. John W. Henry the owner of the Red Sox might not be able to afford the 2nd highest salary in baseball if his fund is on its ass.

Henry's business is now in a deep crisis. Long-standing client
Merrill Lynch (MER - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating)
is yanking $500 million from his commodities and futures trading company,
according to reports published yesterday in The Wall Street Journal.

Merrill, as usual these days, declined to comment. Ken Webster,
president of John W. Henry & Co., did not return calls either.

Can't say I blame them.

The move would send Henry's assets under management plunging to
barely $500 million. That compares with a peak of $3.3 billion at the end of
2004.

They're down 70% this year alone.

They are down 70%! When the Dow is up 17% and breaking all-time records? I wonder if they were trying to short the market, or oil, or maybe gold or something. In any case you have to have a special kind of bad luck to be down 70%.

I wonder if John W. Henry will sell off Big Papi to finance another "No-no Nanette" to make back some of that 70% loss. Are we looking at the "Curse of the Papi" and another 80 year drought for Red Sox fans?