Yankees look to heavens after eliminating curse

By Larry Fine

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Yankees dug deep to rid themselves of a curse by a Red Sox fan this week, then looked to the stars on Wednesday to celebrate the arrival of their arch-rivals for a series at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees on Sunday ordered workers to use jackhammers to break through two feet of concrete at the new stadium being built across the street to remove a Boston jersey buried by a construction worker to put a curse on the New York team.

Yankee officials took a higher road on Wednesday by arranging for NASA astronaut Dr. Garrett Reisman to toss out the ceremonial first pitch from the International Space Station before the opening of the two-game series against Boston.

Reisman, a 40-year-old fan from New Jersey who carried dirt from the stadium pitcher's mound on his mission, told the crowd in a taped segment he was honored to participate in the "final season in the cathedral of baseball."

Dressed in a blue Yankee tee shirt, Reisman tossed a fluttering baseball inside the space capsule more than 200 miles above the Earth's surface to launch the game.

The lofty moment contrasted with the recovery mission at the new stadium, scheduled to open next season.

Working off a tip from other construction workers about where the David Ortiz jersey was buried, Yankees president Randy Levine on Sunday held what he called an "excavation ceremony" to rectify what her termed a "bad, dastardly act."

Levine said the recovered jersey would be sent to Boston where the World Series champions would auction it off for a cancer charity.