The Yankees officially reversed the jersey curse yesterday - extracting from the new stadium's concrete a David Ortiz shirt planted by a Red Sox-obsessed hardhat hoping to hex his team's arch rivals.

Then they warned the traitorous construction worker, Gino Castignoli, to watch his back, saying criminal and civil charges could be on deck.

"I spoke with a (prosecutor). There may be criminal issues," Yankee Chief Operating Officer Lonn Trost said.

Trost speculated that Castignoli could be on the hook for criminal mischief.

A spokesman for the Bronx district attorney said, "We can't speculate" on possible charges.

Trost said that even if Castignoli ends up safe from charges, "we're thinking of a civil case, looking for money damages."

Yesterday's excavation alone cost the team $50,000, Trost said, even though the actual digging took two workers just 15 minutes.

The jersey was partially unearthed Saturday after five hours of digging at the site near a planned restaurant behind home plate.

It had been buried two feet beneath the surface.

The recovery did double duty - not only taking the hex off the Yankees, but also putting one on Ortiz. The Red Sox kept the slumping slugger out of the starting lineup for last night's game against the Bombers, saying he was taking a "mental day off."

Yankee President Randy Levine yesterday proudly held up the tattered shirt, which he said would be donated to Boston's Jimmy Fund for auction to raise money for cancer treatment and research.

"We turned this dastardly act into a positive one," Levine said. He lavished praise upon The Post for bringing it to the team's attention.

"We want to thank The Post for raising this issue," Levine said. "Two heroic construction workers gave us a tip where the shirt was, and we acted immediately."

One of those workers, Frank Gramarossa, who led the removal, said: "I'm glad we got it out. I was angry and upset and wanted to find the jersey."

Castignoli, a self-professed Yankee hater, yesterday said he had spent just one day on the site, working strictly to plant the jersey. "A lot of my friends work there, and they said it was easy work," he said outside his Bronx home. "I told them I wouldn't work there, but then one day a few months later, I said, 'I could just go and jinx that stadium.' "

Castignoli said workers at the site long knew of his devilish doings.

"Anybody with half a brain knows it was all done in fun," he said.

"I didn't hurt nobody."



http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8033686/Charges-for-worker-who-planted-Sox-jersey?&MSNHPHMA#

i'm sure a million plus red sox fans will be glad to send in a dollar each

i would! and i don't even like baseball and i'm as poor a s a church mouse -> but thats a great cause... i'm sure i could find 28 empty beer cans on the side of the road....thats 20 for the buck and 8 more for the stamp... he'll just get a fine...so big deal :rotf2:

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8033686/Charges-for-worker-who-planted-Sox-jersey?&MSNHPHMA#
That's what Billy Joel calls a "New York State of Mind":grins: :cheers: :cool:

I practiced criminal law in NY State for 22 years. For the life of me, I can't imagine what they could charge him with other than littering :doh:

Criminal mischief? What "damage" did he cause by throwing a jersey into a few cubic yards of cement--did it somehow weaken the structural integrity of the cement? :rollem:

The fact that a raving lunatic owner, who buy comparison makes his crazy dad look well grounded, decided in his paranoia to rip up the cement to avoid some imaginary curse doesn't equate into criminal intent to cause physical damage to property by the worker :hs:

Note to Randy Levine--"heroic construction workers" means the guys who worked in the rubble of the WTC for weeks and months after 9/11, not these clowns who "blew the whistle" on a harmless prank. While you were Rudy's director of labor relations, you did everything in your power to screw over every union in the city.

Man, am I glad I left that zoo of a city :humpty:

Best city in the world. Glad they dug it up and it's going support Boston charity. Sox ownership would of done the same exact thing + it makes for a good story....

:devil2:

Man, am I glad I left that zoo of a city :humpty:


I cant stand NY or anything associated with it.... all I hear is Yankees blah blah blah blah Yankees blah blah.....

Glad we toasted their A$$ last night :jump:

Should have just taken a picture and kept his mouth shut.

New York...what a joke this is! Can you believe they want to start charging everyone $8.00 just to enter the city????? Another freedom lost to taxes and the dollar! They can all cram it up their wazooooo!

I practiced criminal law in NY State for 22 years. For the life of me, I can't imagine what they could charge him with other than littering :doh:

Criminal mischief? What "damage" did he cause by throwing a jersey into a few cubic yards of cement--did it somehow weaken the structural integrity of the cement? :rollem:

The fact that a raving lunatic owner, who buy comparison makes his crazy dad look well grounded, decided in his paranoia to rip up the cement to avoid some imaginary curse doesn't equate into criminal intent to cause physical damage to property by the worker :hs:

Note to Randy Levine--"heroic construction workers" means the guys who worked in the rubble of the WTC for weeks and months after 9/11, not these clowns who "blew the whistle" on a harmless prank. While you were Rudy's director of labor relations, you did everything in your power to screw over every union in the city.

Man, am I glad I left that zoo of a city :humpty:

Mike you still a member of the NY Bar?

I am not licensed in NY, but I'll second seat you.


A little Pro Bono work? :lama:

New York...what a joke this is! Can you believe they want to start charging everyone $8.00 just to enter the city????? Another freedom lost to taxes and the dollar! They can all cram it up their wazooooo!

Same thing London did and everyone says its a success with increased usuage of mass transit, much less traffic and pollution. The delivery trucks are even happy cause they can get in and out quicker and make more stops.

Can't remember if this was congestion pricing where the price changes based on what time it is. If not, what is the difference between this and a charging a toll on a bridge.

maybe this will help ortiz.

Mike you still a member of the NY Bar?

I am not licensed in NY, but I'll second seat you.


A little Pro Bono work? :lama:

NY never lets you off the hook once you're admitted--you have to pay your licensing fee every two years, whether you practice there or not. You can't go "inactive" and avoid the fee :hs:

I'm not up to date on my CLE so I'm technically not "current". You don't have to stay up to date on CLE if you're no longer actually practicing there, as long as you're up to date in the state(s) where you are active. And Mass. doesn't have mandatory CLE---yet ;)

Same thing London did and everyone says its a success with increased usuage of mass transit, much less traffic and pollution. The delivery trucks are even happy cause they can get in and out quicker and make more stops.

Can't remember if this was congestion pricing where the price changes based on what time it is. If not, what is the difference between this and a charging a toll on a bridge.

The congestion charge is from 7am and runs until 6pm. I think the jury is still out on its effects. The actual number of cars has been shown to be less but the actual congestion as measured from getting from point A to B has increased by 15%. From a pollution point of view the measurements show less in the central part of the city but it has sky rocketed on the areas that border the charging zone.
The system is run by a private firm and 40% of the charges collected go to the administration of the system. They are trying to expand the zone even further. Like the TBA in NY once you get that revenue stream they can only think of ways to expand it.
What they need to do is come up with improvements to mass transit so that you would be encouraged not to drive (petrol is now a shade under $10 a gallon). Instead in the 10 years the decline of the tube system has been really obvious. Still 20 times better than NY but it is on a fast decline.

NY never lets you off the hook once you're admitted--you have to pay your licensing fee every two years, whether you practice there or not. You can't go "inactive" and avoid the fee :hs:

I'm not up to date on my CLE so I'm technically not "current". You don't have to stay up to date on CLE if you're no longer actually practicing there, as long as you're up to date in the state(s) where you are active. And Mass. doesn't have mandatory CLE---yet ;)

I had to do the online courses last December in a two weekend burst. The course selection was actually ok and had it not been two weekend before the holiday it would not have been so bad. It is about $25 a credit and I used CLEonline.

Ortiz's game shirt!!!!!!!!!

Why would you do that and tell anyone? At least not for twenty years.

New York...what a joke this is! Can you believe they want to start charging everyone $8.00 just to enter the city????? Another freedom lost to taxes and the dollar! They can all cram it up their wazooooo!

I think it means charging every car $8.00 to enter the city, right! London has been doing this for several years, and its more than $8.00 dollars.

Have you ever driven behind one of those cotton heads that have their left turn blinker on all the way from Florida?:smash: