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Yankees Try to Avoid Hex, Unearth Jersey
April 15, 2008 03:37 PM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
In an effort to avoid a potential curse, the Yankees dug up a Red Sox jersey buried in their new stadium by a Boston fan.
30-Second Summary
Bronx native Gino Castignoli became a Boston Red Sox fan in 1975, drawn by his idol, left-fielder Jim Rice.
Although the cement mason was opposed to his union’s initial request to help build the new Yankee Stadium, he ultimately agreed to work for one day. On that day, he buried a David Ortiz jersey by the third-base line.
A year later, word spread about Castignoli’s antics, and in an effort to appease the baseball gods, Yankees officials decided to have the jersey dug up and removed. After all, the Curse of the Bambino haunted the Red Sox for 86 years.
Not only did the Yankees pay construction workers to unearth the jersey, but the organization is now considering whether to file charges against Castignoli.
The curse may also have backfired, as David Ortiz has been struggling lately for the Red Sox.
Fans of the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies shouldn’t be too surprised about the Yankee’s recent paranoia.
A Chicago tavern owner who was incensed at not being allowed to bring his goat into the 1945 World Series reputedly hexed the Cubs, who haven't reached the World Series since. And in Philadelphia, the city made the mistake of constructing a building taller than City Hall, supposedly drawing the posthumous ire of William Penn and keeping the city without a major sports championship since 1980.
But baseball does not have a monopoly on curses. NFL all-stars are now wary of appearing on the cover of the “Madden NFL” video game after athletes such as Donovan McNabb and Shaun Alexander suffered unfortunate injuries after gracing the game’s packaging.
Although the cement mason was opposed to his union’s initial request to help build the new Yankee Stadium, he ultimately agreed to work for one day. On that day, he buried a David Ortiz jersey by the third-base line.
A year later, word spread about Castignoli’s antics, and in an effort to appease the baseball gods, Yankees officials decided to have the jersey dug up and removed. After all, the Curse of the Bambino haunted the Red Sox for 86 years.
Not only did the Yankees pay construction workers to unearth the jersey, but the organization is now considering whether to file charges against Castignoli.
The curse may also have backfired, as David Ortiz has been struggling lately for the Red Sox.
Fans of the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies shouldn’t be too surprised about the Yankee’s recent paranoia.
A Chicago tavern owner who was incensed at not being allowed to bring his goat into the 1945 World Series reputedly hexed the Cubs, who haven't reached the World Series since. And in Philadelphia, the city made the mistake of constructing a building taller than City Hall, supposedly drawing the posthumous ire of William Penn and keeping the city without a major sports championship since 1980.
But baseball does not have a monopoly on curses. NFL all-stars are now wary of appearing on the cover of the “Madden NFL” video game after athletes such as Donovan McNabb and Shaun Alexander suffered unfortunate injuries after gracing the game’s packaging.
Headline Link: Castignoli’s plot foiled
Construction workers began digging up the David Ortiz Red Sox jersey from the third-base line of the new $1.3 billion Yankee stadium on Saturday. The Yankees are now pondering whether to bring charges against Gino Castignoli, the Bronx native turned Boston fan who buried the uniform. In response to the possibility that the Yankees will bring legal action against him, Castignoli said, “I think the Yankees are a bad joke to begin with and shouldn’t make themselves look worse.”
Source: Boston Herald
Background: Sports’ curses should not be taken lightly
A malediction tradition
In October 2006, just before Halloween, FOX Sports published an article called “Sports Atheism: Why Curses Don’t Exist.” The Curse of the Bambino, Billy Goat, and Billy Penn, and the Madden NFL cover jinx, are all figments of the public’s imagination, according to the article.
Source: Fox Sports
After the Red Sox broke the curse and won the World Series in 2004, ESPN assessed those sports teams whose curses remain intact. “To officially be cursed, a franchise cannot have won a championship in the last 25 years … and the franchise must have been in existence for all 25 years,” writes ESPN. The Chicago Cubs take the number one spot.
Source: ESPN
The Seattle Times writes about the “10 great moments in baseball superstition history.” One of these moments involves the common baseball player reverence for the foul line: “Countless players observe the time-honored superstition of not stepping on the foul line (except for the ones who observe the time-honored counter-superstition of stepping ON the foul line).”
Source: The Seattle Times
The Curse of the Bambino
One of the most infamous sports’ jinxes of all time can be traced to the 1919 sale of Babe Ruth from the Red Sox to the Yankees. However, as writer Glenn Stout explains, “‘The Curse’ makes a nice, neat story. But as fact, it makes nice fiction. For while ‘the Curse’ is a good hook, it is not very good history.” Stout also discusses how close baseball came to having the “Boston Yankees.”
Source: ESPN
The curse of the Billy Goat
The Billy Goat Tavern, formerly owned by William "Billy Goat" Sianis, offers an account of the Chicago Cubs’ infamous curse on its Web site. Sianis took his pet goat to game four of the World Series against the Tigers, thinking it would bring the Cubs luck. But Chicago owner P.K. Wrigley wouldn’t let the goat in “because the goat stinks," he said. Sianis left, saying, “The Cubs ain't gonna win no more. The Cubs will never win a World Series so long as the goat is not allowed in Wrigley Field.”
Source: Billy Goat Tavern
The curse of Billy Penn
The Phillies, Eagles, Flyers and Sixers have all failed to secure a championship for the city of Philadelphia since 1987, and some fans hold William Penn responsible. Through an informal “gentlemen’s agreement” in 1901, the Philadelphia government concluded that City Hall “would remain the tallest building in the city” with the statue of William Penn sitting atop it, according to an article in Cabrini College’s The Loquitur. But in March 1987, One Liberty Place was built, eclispsing City Hall as Philadelphia’s tallest building. And the rest is history.
Source: The Loquitur
The Madden Curse
Snopes breaks down “The Madden Curse.” A number of players who have appeared on the cover of the “Madden NFL” video game, released yearly, have ended up suffering serious injuries. For example, the 2002 cover featured Minnesota Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper, who subsequently missed the last five games of that season due to a knee injury.
Source: Snopes
Related Topics: New York-Boston rivalry and ‘America’s Most Miserable Sports Cities’
The Giants defeat of the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII marked a new chapter in the Boston-New York rivalry. The Giants and Patriots never had the same bad blood as the Jets and Patriots or the Red Sox and Yankees, but with last year’s NFL championship, it seems that times have changed.
Source: findingDulcinea
Forbes provides a slideshow of “America's Most Miserable Sports Cities.” The Brooklyn Dodgers dropped five of six World Series bouts to the New York Yankees, and the city of Buffalo saw their Bills lose four consecutive Super Bowls from 1991 to 1994. However, “at least the team took two American Football League titles. The NHL's Sabres, meanwhile, are going on 38 seasons without a Stanley Cup, coming up empty in six final-four appearances,” writes Forbes.
Source: Forbes
© 2010 Dulcinea Media, Inc.
