A Pox Upon Your Stadium!

NEXT YEAR the Yankees will move out of the House That Ruth Built and into the House That Gino Castignoli Helped Build. And because of that, the Red Sox-- Yankees rivalry took another bizarre turn last weekend. Castignoli, a Bronx construction worker and die-hard Boston fan, admitted to the New York Post that he had buried a David Ortiz jersey in the foundation of the new Yankee Stadium last year in an effort to hex the Bombers. Cue the hysteria. On Saturday workers took jackhammers to the section of the stadium where Castignoli had worked. There, after five hours of digging through two feet of concrete, they found a soiled Sox jersey. Yankees general partner Hank Steinbrenner promptly called on Castignoli's coworkers to "kick the s— out of him." Castignoli, 46, responded by telling the Post, "Tell Hank he can come meet me if he wants to try. And tell him to bring [catcher Jorge] Posada, because he's the one Yankee I can't stand."

The Yankees announced that they plan to auction off the jersey and donate the proceeds to the Jimmy Fund, a Boston-based charity. But the story may not have a happy ending for everyone. New York Yankees COO Lonn Trost said that the team was looking into filing criminal charges against Castignoli. And the hex may have backfired: Ortiz is hitting .070 this season and was benched in Sunday night's win over the Yankees at Fenway.