Yankees dig up Red Sox jersey to ease fears of baseball curse

THE NEW York Yankees’ new stadium has been cleansed of possible infection by arch-rivals the Boston Red Sox, it emerged yesterday.

A Boston fan working on the construction of the stadium planted a Red Sox jersey in the building to curse it, but Yankees staff have removed the offending item.

After locating the jersey in a service corridor in the stadium, construction workers jack-hammered through the concrete last Sunday and pulled it out.

The Yankees found out about the rogue jersey — a David Ortiz no. 34 — following a report in the New York Post, and Yankees president Randy Levine said they first considered leaving it in place.

“The first thought was, you know, it’s never a good thing to be buried in cement when you’re in New York,” Levine said. “But then we decided, why reward somebody who had really bad motives and was trying to do a really bad thing?”

Those who’d worked with the Sox fan in question, Gino Castignoli, phoned in tips about the jersey’s location to the on-site building contractors, and after five hours of drilling it was found under two feet of concrete.

The Yankees have discussed possible criminal charges against Castignoli with the district attorney’s office, but it’s not clear whether there’s a case to answer.

“It’s typical Yankees,” Castignoli told the Boston Herald yesterday. “It’s not like I snuck in there. It didn’t do any structural damage. I didn’t put anyone in harm’s way.”

Castignoli only worked for one day on the project, during which he planted the top.

“It was worth it,” he said.

Yankees officials said the shirt would be cleaned up and sent to the Jimmy Fund, a charity affiliated with Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.