Colonel Sanders still smiling after 24-yr Japan dip
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After nearly a quarter century at the bottom of a Japanese river, Colonel Sanders has come up smiling. Ecstatic fans of the Hanshin Tigers baseball team tossed the statue of the Kentucky Fried Chicken mascot into the Dotonbori River in Osaka, western Japan, in 1985 when the perpetual underdogs won their first Central League pennant in 21 years.
Tiger fans, who saw a resemblance between the Colonel and the team's bearded American slugger, Randy Bass, jumped into what was then one of the country's most polluted rivers when the losing streak ended -- and took the life-size statue with them. (Reuters)
