April 12, 2008

Will Wiccan Rite Break Yankees Curse?

It shouldn't come as any surprise that more than a few Yankees fans are worried about this "pox" on their team's new stadium. After all, they were the ones who most fervently believed -- who had a near pathological need to believe -- in the Dan Shaughnessy-invented Red Sox "curse".

Those deluded flat-Earthers finally had to give up that silly superstition in October 2004 when the Red Sox pulled off the greatest comeback in baseball history -- which was concurrent with the Yankees committing the biggest and most embarrassing choke in baseball history.

The Post reports that last August, "Gino" cursed the Yankees for 30 years when he
placed a carefully folded jersey bearing the name and uniform number of David Ortiz ... into the concrete mix being laid along the third base line.

"The reason why is George Steinbrenner told Cashman to get Ortiz and Cashman told him, we don't need him, We have Giambi and Nick Johnson," Gino boasted, referring to a chance the Yanks had to sign Ortiz in 2003. ...

[H]e documented the entire sabotage on his cellphone camera.
But Yankees fans should not worry.
[J]ust in case the buried jersey does indeed bring a curse, Bonnie Thompson, a 37-year-old witch from Hicksville, LI, cast a spell to sweep away the jinx.

"I cast out all negative energies from the Red Sox jinx. Their buried T-shirt has no effect here," the Wiccan priestess said while wearing an all-black dress and Yankees cap. "All negative thought-form be gone."

She then lay a Red Sox jersey on the ground and beat it with a broom.
Very good. Aren't you about 3½ years too late with that spell, lady?

20 comments:

Jere said...

"finally had to give up that silly superstition in October 2004 "

You'd think. But as you and I well know, "2090" appeared literally the next morning, and a year hasn't gone by since 2004 where I haven't heard of some other curse or magic good luck charm. The baseline bird, the foul pole squirrel--oh, and the "the curse took a few years off" theory, as if Babe has officially put an eternal curse on the Red Sox, but to be nice has included intermittent allowances for success and utter happiness. All I know is, these newfangled curses just don't seem to have the staying power of... am I really talking about this!?

Red said...

Ahh, the Yankees. They were a great team 10 years ago.

But seriously, there's a Papi jersey buried at Yankee stadium? How have I never heard this?!

Love your site, btw. I check it before redsox.com, sacreligious as that might be.

accudart said...

Yup, good old white flag. I was watching with Lindy and our youngest (a Yankee fan) Josh when Timlin came in. It made me kind of ill when I saw him come in. I told Lindy and Josh how you tagged him "white flag" .......and sure enough he delivered!

andy said...

Underground news is always more informative and less spinny. Redsox.com is written by marketing accountable writers. And this site is moderated, over there anything could be said.

allan said...

"2090" appeared literally the next morning ... the "the curse took a few years off" theory

Thanks for reminding me. I added two links to the first paragraph.

allan said...

Re Timlin: I'd like to be wrong. Sometimes I am. Too many times, I am not.

He's not gunning for 2,000 appearances, is he?

allan said...

[H]e documented the entire sabotage on his cellphone camera.

Dear "Gino":
If you want a Sox-friendly place to exclusively show your cellphone pix, you know where to find me.

Jack Marshall said...

Re: Timlin: You aren't going to be wrong about Timlin, Redsock. I was a year early, lobbying for him to be dumped in 2007. As for Corey: he stunk in his early appearances, but I would have still kept him over Lopez (how could Theo trade David Riske to get HIM?), who looks hard to hit but too often is not. Corey is more versatile and would give more innings, and I'm 99% sure would end up with a better season than either Lopez OR Timlin. Looks like we'll never know...

laura k said...

No, sadly, the only person wrong about Timlin is Jere, White Flag's most ardent supporter.

So Ray has a Yankees fan in the family now, eh? I'm glad he has someone to replace arguing with me. He said it was no fun anymore now that I am a Citizen.

tim said...

Love your site, btw. I check it before redsox.com, sacreligious as that might be.

not at all! this is where all the muck that's fit to rake is...the simplicity of it does it for me. i don't need to weave through a hodgepodge of shit to find the score/a story or something. flash/graphic design can be cool, but i really think the MLB team sites are poorly laid out. so much garbage everywhere, automatically playing videos, etc. etc.

and i trust everyone here uses Firefox - if there's one extension you absolutely MUST get it's Adblock Plus. Greatest invention ever!

allan said...

I wanted Timlin gone after 2006. This has GOT to be his last year, right? Can't he retire and go off with Ted Nugent and talk politics and kill things?

And if I recall, Ray's got two such fans in his house.

allan said...

MLB keeps adding more and more shit to its site, but it has yet to master even getting MLBTV to play on a regular basis.

Rob T. said...

Best part: Silly Wiccan exorcises the "T-shirt", according to her own quote. But thanks to the pictures the guy posted, we know that it's a JERSEY.

She dispelled the wrong jinx!!!

Go Sox!

tim said...

Yeah, this broom thing is hilarious. Makes me think of some old crazy cat lady or something with like 4" nails and a sickly cackle.

Alls I can say to this whole thing is, what a waste of a jersey.

Jere said...

I'm not specifically a Mike Timlin fan. But last year, everybody said he was done, but he had a solid year and we won another WS. Now he does poorly in his first game and everybody wants his head again? Give the guy a chance. Look what happened last year. I definitely don't think his '07 season proved me wrong by any means.

Sarah Haendler said...

If I believed in curses, I would say that the jersey's curse giving powers are completely dwarfed by the stupidity of replacing Yankee Stadium in the first place. Aside from the fact that I'm angered by the fiscal support the new stadium is getting from the city (and, therefore, little ol' wage-earning me), Yankee Stadium is an icon, and (unlike the equally doomed Shea) a fun place to go see a ballgame.

Seriously, you want a "Curse of the Bambino"? Junk "The House that Ruth Built"!

accudart said...

It's still a little strange that I can't trash talk w/ you Laura...and yes two Yankee fans in the house although the oldest John doesn't really follow baseball.
I like Timlin, but 4 rings might be enough for him....

laura k said...

"It's still a little strange that I can't trash talk w/ you Laura..."

It's still a little strange that Allan and I call the same team "we"!

Fun, but strange.

laura k said...

Sarah, if it's any help, the Yankee Stadium that was an icon disappeared in 1975. The current incarnation was referred to as "the new Yankee Stadium" for many years.

The economics are an abomination. I could not agree more. But Ruth never played in this Stadium, nor did Gehrig, DiMaggio or Mantle.

Jack Marshall said...

No, up to this point, I have to regard Timlin as among the best Sox relievers for his role that I've watched in the last (oh-oh) 45 years. I had seen him pitch in Baltimore as a supposed closer, and he was just awful---and those images of home runs he gave up in crucial games still cause me not to trust him as much as his recent Sox seasons deserve...especially in the post-season, when he seems to be able to step it up (Put him in for Schiraldi in '86, and Billy Buckner would not have been throwing balls out this week.). But the man is 42! The end is near, and I know Francona's loyalty obsession: he'll watch Timlin blow about 5 games and still make speeches about how he's a big part of the team. Get him out BEFORE he starts stinking up the joint, because there are other options that are better risks short-term and much better pay-offs long term.