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It took seven games, but the Hanshin Tigers have overcome the Orix Buffalo to take The Japan Series, 4 games to 3. It's the Tigers' first championship since 1985, when the ecstatic fans not only hurled themselves off a bridge into the Dotonbori Canal, but uprooted a statue of Colonel Sanders and threw it into the drink as well.
Some said that the over-exuberant act of hooliganism was due to the statue's passing resemblance to gaijin Tiger slugger Kevin Bass, and the fans wanted to take their hero with them for a murky swim. Whatever the reason, the rowdyism supposedly cast dishonor upon the franchise, and brought upon the team "The Curse of the Colonel" — resulting in a long period when the team has had their periods of excelling but had been never able to take home the big one.
Curse or not, that period has ended.
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Congratulations on the reflected glory that also falls on the likes of George Altman, Scott Atchison, Jason Hardtke, Mike Kinkade, Tom O'Malley, Jerrod Riggan, Shane Spencer, Tony Tarasco, the inimitable Bruce Boisclair, and any other TigerMets I am forgetting.
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