US News

Slice of home in Indy

Hot, saucy and dripping with superstition, Big Blue will have its pizza hand-delivered to Indianapolis from home.

The Giants are having their traditional local pizza maker deliver their weekly stack of pies — which the offensive line has devoured almost every Friday after practice for four seasons.

This season, in the three weeks they’ve had to go without their pies, they’ve lost.

“It’s a dream come true,” said Gaetano Corteo, 34, the general manager of Umberto’s in New Hyde Park, LI, the 47-year-old, family-owned restaurant frequented by Giants such as David Diehl, Justin Tuck and their fans.

Corteo will catch an Indianapolis-bound Delta flight early tomorrow with more than a dozen pies carefully housed in custom-made heat-retaining bags.

“It’s become a tradition in the sense that there were three games we missed [delivering to], and I believe those were games they lost,” said Umberto’s marketing manager Anthony Lopez.

Special arrangements have been made with federal airport screeners to get the piping-hot pies quickly through security at La Guardia, the restaurant owners said.

Giants players put in their orders personally. Offensive guard Diehl and defensive end Tuck have been boosters of the team’s Friday tradition since now-retired defensive end Michael Strahan started it four seasons ago.

“We got a call from Diehl this week, and he said, ‘You better get those pies out here on Friday,’ ” said Lopez.

“We’re really excited about it. It’s going to be a great game to watch,” he added.

Additional reporting by Steve Serby