Digging in at the new Stadium

May 05, 2009|Dan Shaughnessy, Globe Columnist

NEW YORK - The New Yankee Stadium has Monument Park, an old-timey hand-operated scoreboard, and that signature frieze that was in the backdrop of all those wire photos of Don Larsen and Whitey Ford in Octobers past.

Everything is new and shiny, right down to the individual touch-screen computers at each player's stall in the home clubhouse - a locker room with enough square footage to land a Boeing 747.

Incredibly, the brand-new palace also has a substantial sinkhole in the concrete floor next to the wall that lines the corridor outside the visitors' clubhouse.

Big Papi's pothole.

The legend of David Ortiz's embedded jersey is forever part of the new Yankee Stadium. And the hole might be permanent, too.

You remember the story: Red Sox fan Gino Castagnoli infiltrated the ranks of one of the crews pouring concrete for the new stadium and told friends that he'd planted Papi's jersey in the cement outside the visitors' clubhouse.

It was sort of like the urban legend of Jimmy Hoffa being buried underneath one of the end zones at the Meadowlands. When the Yankees learned of the jersey stunt, they brought out a jackhammer and dug it up. It cost $45,000 to recover the jersey, which was later sold for $175,000 with proceeds going to the Jimmy Fund.

But the 2-foot-by-4-foot hole remains. There's no plaque, no official recognition, but everybody knows why it's there. It's been there more than a year, and it's not like they just forgot to fix it. A metal rail has been put up to prevent anyone from stepping in the hole. We await the commemorative plaque.

Yankee publicist Jason Zillo last night said he did not know the ball club's permanent plans for the hole in the floor. Looks to me like part of a behind-the-scenes tour.

Ortiz went out to take a look.

"Why me?" Papi said, smiling. "I don't like all that curse stuff and voodoo stuff. Why me?"

It was strange when a bunch of Sox players came off the bus and walked into the locker room of the new place for the first time. Jason Varitek walked into the clubhouse, wheeling his ubiquitous roller-bag and stopped because he didn't know where his locker was. A lowly sportswriter had to point him to the stall with No. 33 over the top.

"I went to the kitchen," said Big Papi. "Next thing I knew, I was in the gym. Then I went to the dugout and I'm like, 'I ain't going to get lost here.' "

Tim Wakefield and John Smoltz were issued the double-wide lockers in the new room.

"Seniority," said Wakefield. "I like this place."

"We're all routine-oriented," said manager Terry Francona. "I like knowing where I'm going. And I noticed when you walk out of the dugout, the upper deck is not on top of you anymore."