Curses in Sports

Earlier this week the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry took another turn, as a construction worker on the new Yankee Stadium buried a David Ortiz jersey in the concrete foundation of the visitor’s clubhouse, in an attempt to jinx the team. (Footage here). At first the Yankees played it off like it was a joke, but then when more and more reports started surfacing, and the worker who did it, Gino Castignoli came forward. In the Yankee- Red Sox rivalry you don’t joke about curses, you take them very seriously. So seriously that the Yankees spent thousands of dollars successfully digging the jersey up. This situation is being taken so seriously that the Yankees are contemplating bringing criminal charges against Castignoli. The Yankees originally thought of keeping the jersey buried, but then they didn’t want to reward someone who had such bad intentions. In sports it is not unusual to bury something in the foundations of playing venues for good luck. In the 2002 Olympics a worker on the ice hockey rink buried a Canadian coin near center ice, to give the Canadian hockey team good luck. Canada went onto win its first gold medal in over 50 years. An unknown good luck charm was buried in the foundation of the original Yankee Stadium in the 1920s to help the team win the World Series. The Yankees then went onto to win 26 World Championships, the most of any team in baseball. Was this as big of an issue as it became, no. But because it was the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry it became what it did. My apologies to Ohio State vs. Michigan and Auburn vs. Alabama in college football, to North Carolina vs. Duke in college basketball, to Cowboys-Redskins in the N.F.L., and any other rivalry we have in sports. This is why this rivalry is the best in all of American sports and nothing else is even close.