Report: Workers dig furiously to rid new Yanks stadium of Red Sox jersey
ESPN.com news services
Crisis, and curse, averted.
It took about five hours, but the Red Sox jersey that was embedded in the concrete of the Yankees' new stadium to place a curse on the New York franchise has been unearthed with jackhammers, according to a published report.
Earlier this week, a construction worker who is a Boston fan working on the concrete crew at the $1.3 billion new Yankee Stadium buried a Red Sox shirt in with the concrete foundation, in the hopes of jinxing the New York Yankees' new home, the New York Post reported.
The newspaper reported Sunday that two workers approached a construction manager with what they thought was the location of the jersey. After digging a two-foot by three-foot hole, the jersey was found.
"They absolutely pinpointed that if it was in the ground, that's where it was," Yankees spokeswoman Alice McGillion told the newspaper.
Initially the Yankees denied the jersey was ever buried in the footings of the new stadium. But clearly the Yankees brass is happier now with the possibility of a course gone.
"I hope his co-workers kick the [expletive] out of him," Yankees co-chairperson Hal Steinbrenner said.
The newspaper said the jersey felt like a filthy rag, but the word "Red" was clearly visible.
There are precedents for fans strategically burying trinkets for good luck. During the construction of the ice rink for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, a worker laid a Canadian one-dollar coin (known as a "loonie") at center ice. Canada went on to win its first gold medal in men's ice hockey since 1952.
And Mickey Bradley, a co-author of "Haunted Baseball," told the New York Post that a worker was said to have buried an unknown good-luck charm in a water main trench of the current Yankee Stadium back in 1920.
"Prior to that, they never won a World Series," he told the newspaper.
Apparently my showing up to their stadium cursed them, when they got hammered 8-2 Friday.
Notes on AT&T Park:
Dear Northern California: Please get your garlic the hell off your French fries. It's inedible.
There are PS3's running MLB08 set up to be played in the concourses.
You can buy Safeway food and soup at their stand, but I don't know why you'd want to. You can get Ghirardelli ice cream and hot chocolate at the park, and I so know why you'd want to. Hi-def TV's at every concessions stand are also a nice touch.
Albert Pujols is a beast. His nemesis on the day Barry Zito meanwhile has a swing like a Jerry's kid attacking a pinata. It was beyond pathetic, even for a pitcher. And everyone on the Muni back to downtown after the game wants Zito's head on a plate. Especially A's fans.
But being in the upper deck behind home plate (even for the ayfkm price of $28) with a view over the water, watching the ferries come in behind right field is beyond gorgeous.
28USD is for the "view boxes" at the front of the upper deck behind the plate; the seats behind those but further up are USD20, and the ones out in the outfield go down as low as USD10.
But going to watch the Giants is not inexpensive; the field boxes go for USD75 (95 for "premium" seats and service).
Are you sure ursus? I was above the walkway/aisle, and when I walked up to the ticket window and said upper deck behind home plate it was $28 first offered.
If you want to sit in the field boxes at Yankee Stadium, it's between $325-400 a game. Mets are over $100.
Well, that was just WILD. I tried to stay awake for this (it started here on TV at 1:30 and I record every game, just in case), got to the middle of the 5th, fell asleep thinking the worst, and woke up to find that the Yankees added another 8. I may have to put this onto a DVD in case it ends up as the highlight of the Yankees year.
I've just learned that the Mariners have a reliever named Putz, but that he pronounces the name like "puts". Is this the greatest face-saving surname pronunciation since Rusty Kuntz?
So I went to Shea on Saturday to see it again before it goes away, and it can't go away fast enough.
The Subway stand in the stadium sells footlongs. For $12. The Dunkin Donuts stand does not sell donuts, meanwhile. Right field loge/2nd deck of 4 seats for an average Braves-Mets game, right out by the foul pole, were $37.
I've never been to a sporting event with a streaming stock ticker before, but between innings there was one, even with it being Saturday.
But Citifield, rapidly rising behind center field of Shea, looks like it could be absolutely gorgeous. They've extended it behind home plate off the curve of the stadium to build a replica (in orangish brick, not stone) of Ebbets Field's exterior. It looks AWESOME.
Just a horrible, horrible thing. I do believe her when she said "I thought they'd get out of the way," but something inside of your head should say "hmmm, I better have a Plan B just in case they don't get out of the way, as in stepping on the brakes."
But already this brain surgeon is befuddled that painting a Yankees emblem on your car may result in people not liking the Yankees chanting anti-Yankees chants. I mean who woulda thought.
Re: Candlestick Park - I was impressed that the bleachers were $2.50 in 1990. I remember sitting behind some ex-hippie/ex-Hells Angels/ex-miscreants who were chanting "(Kal) Daniels fucks sheep". Then one of the guys big joke was "Ewe did it !"
Two guys sitting next to each other at Dodger Stadium each caught foul balls yesterday...on back-to-back pitches:
QUOTE: The Los Angeles Dodgers' batting lineup didn't have much luck Wednesday. But the team's fan lineup in Dodger Stadium's Section 11, Row N certainly did.
In the bottom of the fifth inning Glen Walker in Seat 1 caught a pop foul hit by Dodger first baseman James Loney.
On the next pitch by the New York Mets' John Maine, Joe Castro in Seat 2 caught a line-shot fouled off Loney's bat.
The crowd in the field-level seats between third base and home went wild.
"It was the weirdest thing," said Walker, 50, of Redondo Beach. "The ball went straight up and came down fast. I caught it on a short hop. I had a baseball glove in my car, but I didn't bring it into the stadium with me. When the ball was coming at me, I wished I had."
Castro, 43, of Long Beach, was high-fiving Walker when the sharp whack of Loney's bat signaled another foul co