Back in 1985, the Hanshin Tigers won the national championship, and the city of Osaka went wild in celebration. One of the more famous incidents was that many denizens of the city lifted up and threw a statue of Colonel Sanders into the river running through the city. They threw him in because of his resemblance to then first baseman Randy Bass.
But, ever since then, the Hanshin Tigers have had nothing but bad luck. It's just like the Red Sox used to be. The curse went on for 24 years, until just the other day when they dragged up the stone corpse of Colonel Sanders from the river. The statue was discovered while they were working on construction for a new walkway.
Right now, the police has the statue in their custody...in case it runs away or something. KFC Japan has said, though, that they're considering donating the statue to the Hanshin Stadium, giving him a new home with the team he's so closely tied to. Now, the Tigers need to come back and go on a massive winning streak.