The New York Yankees have stopped an attempt by a Red Sox fan to jinx the team's new stadium by burying a Red Sox jersey in the new ballpark.
Construction workers drilled through the last few inches of cement on Sunday to uncover and remove the torn jersey, a number 34 for David Ortiz.
The white shirt was apparently buried by a construction worker -- and Red Sox fan -- who was working as a subcontractor on the site in recent weeks.
A Yankees spokesperson initially denied there was any truth to the story.
"We don't think it happened," Yankee spokeswoman Alice McGillion said. "We think it's a tall tale, and there is no sign that it happened. There is a lot of authentication of concrete and other construction materials, and there are standards in place to prevent things like this from taking place."
But when two construction workers came forward on Saturday morning and said they had witnessed the incident, Yankee officials sent teams searching through the construction site -- next door to the current ballpark -- looking for the supposedly cursed jersey. Two supervisors identified the exact location Saturday afternoon and started drilling through the two feet of hard cement to uncover the shirt.
"I read an article the other day that said Derek Jeter said 'I hope that somebody digs it out' and that gave us our motivation" said Frank Gramorosa, one of the site supervisors that helped yank the jersey out of the hole.
The Yankees now plan to donate the jersey to charity.
"We are gonna send it up to Boston, to the Jimmy Fund, to help cure kids with cancer," Yankee President Randy Levine said. "We hope the Jimmy Fund will auction it off, and we will take an act that was a very very bad act and turn it into something beautiful."
Sunday, April 13, 2008
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