Chicago Cubs turn down offer to end curse?

This plastic statue of Colonel Harlen Sanders graced the outside of an Osaka, Japan KFC franchise until 1985 -- but then some excited fans of Japan's Hanshin Tigers baseball team, which had won its first Central League championship in two decades, celebrated by tossing the statue into the nearby Dotonbori River. Apparently, the (probably over-served) fans determined that the Colonel resembled the Tigers power hitter, former major-leaguer Randy Bass.



Years later, after the Tigers fell back to their losing ways, fans blamed the bad luck on "The KFC Curse" and a local TV station sent a diver into the murky water in hopes of turning up the colonel. No luck.

Until this week, when divers searching for unexploded bombs stumbled upon the colonel's torso, and the next day found his legs and right hand. Maybe the curse is now over. Maybe the team will regain its winning ways.

But the story doesn't end there. A letter was sent to the Chicago Cubs -- another team battling a "billy-goat curse" imposed even longer ago -- a letter offering to bring this curse-breaking statue to Wrigley Field for Opening Day. Last I heard, the Cubs have turned down this magnanimous offer, preferring to rely instead on a game plan built upon pitching-hitting-fielding. I believe such a plan has been tried many times before to no avail during the last 100 fruitless years.

Could a stab at a curse-breaking statue hurt?