hanshin tigers
Japanese baseball team, based in Osaka and playing in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. The team is one of the most popular in Japan along with the rival Yomiuri Giants, and is often compared to the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball in terms of history and fan support.
Infamously is the subject of the "Curse of the Colonel", where Tigers supporters throwing a statue of Colonel Sanders into a river after the team's 1985 Japan Series victory has been attributed to a two-decade long drought of the Tigers not winning the Central League championship and their almost-40-year Japan Series drought. The curse was seen as broken following the Tigers' victory in the 2023 Japan Series.
