BASEBALL
Buried Red Sox Jersey Is Up For Auction
Ryan Reardon, left, an 8-year-old cancer patient, helps unveil the David Ortiz jersey that was buried under the Yankees' new stadium.
(By Steven Senne -- Associated Press)
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Some might call it a curse, others might say it's a goodwill gesture by longtime baseball rivals.
The official charity of the Boston Red Sox, the Jimmy Fund, began an eBay auction yesterday for the David Ortiz jersey that was buried under the New York Yankees' new stadium by a Boston fan hoping to create a hex.
All proceeds will go to the children's cancer charity, which is affiliated with Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The jersey was discovered Sunday, and the Yankees sent it to the Jimmy Fund.
The auction lasts one week. The starting bid was $500 for the No. 34 jersey, a brand new jersey and two seats to a Red Sox game.
"It's certainly a very, very valuable piece of property," said Mike Andrews, the chairman of the Jimmy Fund and a former Red Sox second baseman.
"We're bitter rivals when we go on the field, but there's one thing we have in common and that's the fight against cancer," he said. "I think it was wonderful they thought of us immediately, but I'm not surprised."
Construction worker Gino Castignoli, a Red Sox fan from the Bronx, had dropped the jersey in wet concrete, apparently trying to jinx the Yankees.
Tipsters led the Yankees to the jersey's location, under two feet of concrete in a service corridor. The jersey didn't fare well underground. It was torn by the jackhammers and stained, and some of the letters spelling "Red Sox" on the front are falling off.
Ryan Reardon, an 8-year-old Red Sox fan and cancer patient at Dana-Farber, helped unveil the jersey yesterday at the hospital. He said he felt good about the Yankees, since they're helping the Jimmy Fund.
When asked how long he expected that to last, he replied: "Just today."
-- From News Services
