Is the curse over?

A few years back, while writing about the Japan World Series, I posted about the “Curse of the Colonel”-the one Col Sanders put on the Hanshin Tigers.

In 1985, the Tigers took the CL pennant and won the Japan Series. After they clinched the flag, a statue of Colonel Sanders was uprooted from its home in front of an Osaka KFC restaurant by celebrating fans and was joyously dumped in the river. The Colonel hasn’t been seen since and Hanshin has never won another Japan Series.

The drought may finally be over:

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Divers looking for unexploded bombs found the missing Colonel on Tuesday, and returned him to the surface world, forever ending the Hanshin Tiger’s curse? They most recently won the league pennant in 2005, after losing their second trip to the Japan series in 2003.

From Mainichi Daily News, 3/11/09

The upper body of the statue was discovered at around 4 p.m. about 200 meters away from where it plunged into the water in 1985. When the figure was being pulled up by the crane on a salvage barge, construction workers could be heard to say, “It looks like a corpse.” However, when Tigers fans such as the riverside project foreman saw the statue, they exclaimed, “It’s the Colonel!” Passersby also stopped in their tracks to take in the scene.

With the media and locals looking on, divers began their search for the lower body at around 8:50 Wednesday morning, and discovered the right hand some minutes later. About 10 minutes after that, the diver’s voice burst from a speaker on the salvage barge, saying, “It’s the lower body. There’s no mistake about it,” bringing on a cheer from reporters and workers alike.

The statue sections are covered in river mud and badly stained, and the figure’s feet, left hand and glasses have yet to be uncovered. The Osaka Municipal Government, which is responsible for the riverside, is holding the statue and will consult with Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan on how to handle it.

And what do Hanshin Tigers fans believe the Colonel’s discovery portends?

“We’ll be number one in Japan this year for sure,” they say.

Go Tigers!

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