The Curse of Colonel Sanders

ABC’s Stu Schutzman from New York: Never underestimate the lengths(and depths) Japanese baseball fanatics will go to root for their team.   In 1985, Osaka’s Hanshin Tigers won the Japanese national championship.  The custom in Osaka, when the team wins, is for fans to jump into the murky Dotonburi river. And rush the river they did. Some Tigers fans noticed that the star player on the team, American slugger Randy Bass bore a striking resemblance to Colonel Harlan sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Why not steal a statue of the Colonel from a local KFC and submerge it in the river along with the throngs of faithful. That’s exactly what they did. As the Colonel’s likeness disappeared into the muck, the fortunes of the Hanshin Tigers began to sink as well. They have not won a championship since — the "curse of the Colonel" has lasted these 24 years. Until today. This morning, a construction crew, building a walkway, found the upper half of Sanders’ statue stuck in the mud. Covered in mud, no hands or legs; no glasses but the Colonel’s famous smile was intact.
"He was apparently found standing upright," said a local KFC spokeswoman, "which is fitting, because although he was a nice man he could be very strict and demanding." KFC will donate what’s left of the statue to the Tigers for their ballpark. The "curse of the Colonel" is apparently over. Today, former tiger slugger Randy Bass is an Oklahoma state senator. Many Tigers fans are too young to remember him; but most are aware of drought…and the curse that caused it.