DATELINE: 25 February, 2002

DIVERS SEARCH BOSTON POND FOR BABE RUTH'S PIANO
Fans of the Red Sox baseball team are hoping that divers will retrieve a piano Babe Ruth played in 1918 - the last time that the Red Sox won the World Series - and restore the team's winning ways. Babe Ruth rented a cottage close to Willis Pond, and the piano was reportedly dumped by the famous baseball star shortly before he was sold to the New York Yankees. The Red Sox have never since won a World Series, and the loss of the piano has come to be regarded as 'The Curse of the Bambino'.
An indication of the piano's existence was uncovered late last year when a local historian used an infrared camera to identify a box-like shape with wiry strands close to the edge of the pond. Desperate Red Sox fans have now turned to a volunteer dive team to search for the legendary instrument. The piano is thought to be covered in silt and lying in barely 6m of water. The divers have been conducting a fingertip search since Saturday 24 February, in zero visibility. Sonar scanning equipment is now being deployed to help locate the target.
Plans to retrieve and restore the piano have given hope to those US fans who believe it is only the curse that prevents the Red Sox from returning to former glory. However, Arsenal fans who remember the sugar mice incident in Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch will probably know better.

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