Sports Shorts

The David Ortiz Jersey

By:  Eddie Morgan

 

            On Sunday April 13, Frank Gramarossa and Rich Corrado finished their excavation and proudly held up their new treasure: a buried David Ortiz jersey.  The workers had plunged into the cement for two seemingly endless hours until they finally chipped two and a half feet under and removed the dusty and torn jersey.  

After hearing word that a Red-sox rooting construction worker placed the jersey in the cement in hope of placing a curse on the Pinstripes, and receiving further detail about its location on Saturday, the Yankees decided to turn the “bad, dastardly act”, into a good cause.  The Yankees decided that it was best to dig it up and planned that once they located and removed it from the site, they would clean it and send it to Boston, where it would be auctioned off to benefit the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.  The jersey netted $175,000 for the charity.

While some may say that the media’s coverage of the situation as well as the Yankees’ reaction to it were overblown, the story was an interesting diversion from the bad news we are battered with every day we read the paper or watch news on television.  The Yankees’ decision to turn the spectacle into an opportunity for a charitable cause was not only a positive play for the charity, it was also public relations for the team that money could not buy.  Superstition or not, the excavation of the jersey and its aftermath was a positive experience for everyone involved except perhaps for the construction worker who could face criminal charges though his now-legendary fame in the hearts and minds of Redsox fans may more than make up for any punishment he may face.

 

Eddie Morgan is a student at New Providence High School.  He can be reached at sportsshorts@thealternativepress.com