Colonel Sanders Haunts Japan

Everyone is familiar with the Curse of the Bambino and the Curse of the Billy Goat. Those are really bad curses. The red sox finally shrugged the babe from their soldiers in 2004, 86 years after they traded their young pitcher for cash. The Billy Goat still haunts the Chicago Cubs, who even when good, seem so ba-a-a-a-ad.

Across the Pacific, our baseball loving friends of Japan have their own curses. Most notably the Curse of the Colonel. In 1985, the Hashin Tigers won their only Japanese baseball championship, thanks in part to their star American player, Rand Bass, whose facial hair was strikingly similar to the chicken toting mascot Colonel Sanders. Enthralled, the fans celebrated their victory by stealing a statue of the Colonel, hoisting it in the air, and promptly throwing it into the river. Woa be to KFC. The Tigers have yet to repeat in the championships blaming their futility on the creator of the original recipe.

Good news is now being reported. Workers have rediscovered the statue, and have hauled it out of it's watery tomb. Has the curse been removed? Will the Tigers finally beat their arch-nemesis, the Giants of Tokyo? Who knows. If the Sox can win two world series, and the ChiSox can win as well after long droughts, then anything is possible.

All I know is that there is one person I don't want rooting against me, and he is the Colonel because that triangle beard and white hair is only a horn or two away from being Satan. And, everyone knows that Satan is a baseball fan. That's why they sacrifice chicken (by eating KFC) to remove curses from error prone gloves (watch Bull Durham if you don't believe me). So thank goodness the Colonel is back on dry land, and who wants to split an 8 piece with me and watch some baseball?

Even npr covered the storey.