Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Who's Got the Curse Now?

If you know me, you know that I am a Red Sox fan. If you know Red Sox fans, you know that we are anti-Yankee. So the recent sweep of the New York Yankees by the Boston Red Sox was a thing of great joy to me.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not a Yankee-hater. I don't want anything bad to happen to the New York Yankees. I just don't want anything good to happen to them. I don't want their plane to crash, but if it developed engine problems before take-off and they had to sit on the runway and forfeit a game, it would be OK. I don't want them to get the swine flu, but some temporarily debilitating game-day gastrointestinal upset after a bad taco wouldn't be bad. Get it? Nothing bad, but nothing good, either.

So, how about the new Yankee Stadium, huh? Quite a few baseballs have left that park this month, with a significant number leaving by way of right field. Let's think about that for a minute. Does anybody else remember last April? That was when workers removed a David Ortiz replica jersey from the construction of the new Yankee Stadium. It had been put there by a construction worker from the Bronx who happened to be a Red Sox fan. Gino Castignoli, a Sox fan since 1975 (he idolized Jim Rice), worked just one day on the project, and buried the jersey beneath two feet of concrete. Does that ring a bell, anyone?

Castignoli had hoped to curse the Yankees, but when the jersey was removed, most people thought that the curse was foiled. Maybe it was just softened. I may be accused of trying to draw the conclusion I want, but think about it: When opponents set up what Red Sox announcers call "the Ortiz shift," where do the players move? Toward right field, because David Ortiz bats left-handed. And so many home runs sailing to right and right-center? Could it be more than a mere coincidence? Could the new Yankee Stadium be cursed?

David Ortiz is in a bit of a slump right now, for sure. At .287, he's got the lowest batting average in the starting line-up (bad for somebody we pay to hit), 20 strikeouts (see previous parenthetical comment) and no home runs. I'm looking forward to May 4, when David Ortiz stands in the batter's box at the new Yankee Stadium. I suspect that, if there's any truth to this curse, if Gino Castignoli's buried jersey did its work, David Ortiz will end his slump.

Of course, if it ends sooner, that's OK, too.

1 comment:

  1. Amen, brother Tony! May the visiting homers continue to sail to the right!

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