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↵KFC does pretty well here in the States, but oh holy cardiac arrest does it do well in East Asia. There’s been an infestation in Chinese and Japanese cities for years, albeit with a few tweaks from the American model. Corn soup on the menu? A bit of five-spice powder in the batter? A slightly Asian-ified Colonel Sanders beckoning to you from the sidewalk. ↵
↵That slightly Asian-looking Colonel Sanders is at the center of Japanese baseball's most delicious curses: the Hanshin Tigers' Colonel Sanders curse. After winning their last Central League title in 1985, Hanshin supporters got overly festive and chucked a statue of Colonel Sanders -- who to the Japanese bore a strong resemblance to Hanshin American slugger Randy Bass -- into Osaka's Dotonbori River. Since then, the Tigers have not won a title. Mix some superstition, some bad baseball teams, and one very oddly placed bit of statuary lying at the bottom of a river, and poof! You've deep fried yourself a nicely constructed curse. ↵
↵↵Divers looking for unexploded ordinance during the construction of a city project this week may have expunged the curse, however. What they thought was a body at the bottom turned out to be the statue, found in several pieces 200 yards from its initial 1985 dive into the water. Live the drama as they did by reading the following: ↵
↵↵⇥"It looks like a corpse." However, when Tigers fans such as the riverside project foreman saw the statue, they exclaimed, "It's the Colonel!" ↵↵IT'S THE COLONEL!!! Japanese officials will meet with KFC-Japan to figure out the proper thing to do with the Colonel, who of course should be bolted into the centerfield stands at the Tigers' stadium to enjoy their first league title in 25 years this coming season. This entry brought to you by the Japanese Office: just like the American Office, but with stranger commercials and more nervous female giggling.↵
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.