The Curse of Colonel Sanders

I neglected to put this in my blog at the time, but when I went to Osaka I learned about the Curse of Colonel Sanders. Let me tell you the tale...

In 1985 the Hanshin Tigers, the local baseball team of Osaka, won the Japan Series- due in large part to an American by the name of Randy Bass. Naturally winning the Japan Series was a big deal, so baseball fans in Osaka went wild in celebration. The celebration centered around Ebisubashi Bridge in downtown Osaka (I ate Okonomiyaki on this bridge!). Eventually as the fans grew rowdier they began calling out the names of players and with each name a look-alike would jump into the river below. However there were no lookalikes for the American Randy Bass! The next best thing was a statue of KFC's infamous Colonel Sanders that was outside a nearby KFC, so into the river the statue went. To this date the Hanshin Tigers have yet to win another Japan Series and it is believed that they never will until the statue of the Colonel is located.


Well, today in Osaka divers found most of the statue. Maybe there's hope for the Tigers after all? It gets even better- I found an article online that states the following:

{But now there's hope for ending the so-called "Colonel Sanders curse," in the wake of its retrieval by divers.

Ah, but the story doesn't end there. KFC knows that in terms of cooking up a cursed baseball team, the Chicago Cubs are the unquestioned owners of the original recipe.

Accordingly, KFC's president, Roger Eaton, has sent a letter to Cubs ownership, offering to lend the statue. The letter says, in part:

"We are working desperately with our Japanese colleagues to bring the curse-breaking Colonel Sanders statue to your field by opening day. While we can’t promise the statue will snap curses of billy goats, black cats or even a foul-ball-interfering fan, we figure it can’t hurt."

The Cubs open on a Monday this season, the 13th. And good luck with that.} http://blogs.usatoday.com/gameon/2009/03/kentucky-fried.html

And there you have it :)