In 1985, the Japanese baseball team Hanshin Tigers won their first victory in the Japan Series. Fans celebrated the underdog’s win by gathering at the Dotonbori River and yelling each player’s name before a fan dressed as that player jumped into the water. Since there were no fans that looked like the American MVP Randy Bass, someone threw a statue of Colonel Sanders from a nearby KFC into the river in Randy’s stead. The Tigers suffered an 18 year losing streak afterwards.

 Damn the sport and the dirty bats dragged
 Like a kiss round a hand; some ritual for
 Good luck. The Tigers’ eyes have lagged
 18 years on their prey. Some metaphor
  
 Cooked up by fans: the statue of Colonel
 Sanders down in the Dotonbori River.
 Proxy for first baseman. The cursed pearl
 Of the gaijin evil eye. Die-hards shivered
  
 At the sight of him recovered—propped
 On red carpet, missing glasses and left hand.
 “Retribution” some surmised. A hand lost or lopped,
 An eye for an eye. Fearful asymmetry and
  
 A superstition that blinds. Soccer fans roared
 In ‘02 at Tunisia’s defeat, desperate for analogies
 Between bucket and world cup. Wrong sport.
 Yet hundreds still leapt into the canal to freeze.