Red Sox Features On wbztv.com
Apr 17, 2008 11:07 pm US/Eastern
Jimmy Fund Auctions Buried Red Sox Jersey On eBay
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
-
-
In shreds from the jackhammers Sunday, the shirt was cleaned up and sent to the Jimmy Fund.
WBZ
Poll
Do you believe in sports team curses?
You need the latest Flash player to view our Poll.
Click here to download.
Click here to
bypass this detection if you already
have the latest Flash Player.
The Jimmy Fund announced Thursday it is auctioning off the tattered David Ortiz jersey that was buried in the new Yankee Stadium.
The auction began Thursday on
eBay and lasts for one week. The starting bid is $500. By 11 p.m. Thursday, the highest bid was over $30,000.
All proceeds will go to the children's cancer charity, which is affiliated with Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Construction worker and Red Sox fan Gino Castignoli buried the shirt under two feet of cement during the construction of the new stadium hoping to curse the Yankees. When the Yankees found out about it, they dug it up over the weekend.
Yankee President Randy Levine had the shirt cleaned up and sent to the Jimmy Fund earlier this week.
Castignoli told WBZ's Ron Sanders Thursday he agrees with the Yankees move.
"I think that's a great gesture by the Yankees to give the shirt to the Jimmy Fund and some good will come out of it."
"It was all done in fun," he said. "Nobody got hurt and actually it worked out even better because the Jimmy Fund is getting the money."
Castignoli said the Jimmy Fund isn't the only charity to benefit from his stunt.
"The newspaper in New York (The New York Post) that ran the story gave me $2,000 for the story and the pictures. I told them to make the check out to the Red Sox Foundation."
Castignoli said the Post told him it would take 2-to-3 weeks to send the check out.
As for his future, it is still not clear if the Yankees will take legal action against him.
The Yankees said it cost about $30,000 to dig up the shirt.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)