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Key Points Colonel Sanders lookalike appeared behind home plate during Game 2 of the World Series. KFC confirmed it was a marketing stunt to promote the renamed “Dinger” sandwich. There's a “Curse of the Colonel” myth, but it did not affect the Dodgers. Some people tuning into Game 2 of the World Series featuring the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday, Oct. 25 may have thought they spotted a ghost on their TV screens during the game, which was broadcast live on FOX from the Rogers Center in Toronto. Seated behind the plate was a man that looked like Colonel Sanders, the legendary creator of Kentucky Fried Chicken, which is commonly known as KFC these days. 🎬 SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 The only thing is the real Colonel Sanders died on Dec. 16, 1980, at the age of 90. Who Was the Colonel Sanders Clone? So, who was that man dressed in a white suit, with a black western-style tie and grey hair with a matching mustache and goatee? As some fans speculated, it was all part of a marketing stunt launched by KFC to promote a featured menu item, though fans on social media have several different theories about the Colonel clone. Oops! We’re unable to load this content right now. View directly on 𝕏 “We changed the name of our iconic KFC Zinger sandwich to the Dinger, and sent the Colonel to Game 2 to hype that message,” said Azim Akhtar, the interim chief marketing officer of KFC Canada, in an emailed statement, per the Toronto Star. “It’s our way of feeding baseball fandom and celebrating the hits.” KFC Canada has pulled similar stunts at other sporting events, including a Winnipeg Jets NHL game in April (see photo above). The ‘Curse of the Colonel’ Explained One of the more interesting theories involves the so-called “Curse of the Colonel,” which is based on a myth that the ghost of the chicken king put a curse of the Hanshin Tigers from Japan’s Nippon Baseball League, for tossing a statue of his likeness into a canal. The Dodgers have a trio of Japanese superstars on their team—legendary two-way player Shohei Ohtani and ace pitchers Roki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the star of the Dodgers’ 5-1 Game 2 victory over the Blue Jays. Yet neither of those three played for the Hanshin Tigers before coming to the Dodgers. The Hanshin Tigers were perpetual losers until 1985, when they shocked the country by making their first Japan Series appearance. Some overzealous fans celebrated by stealing a statue of the Colonel from a KFC and tossing it into a canal. For years after that, the team continued its losing ways, making it to the Japan Series in 2003 and 2005, but ultimately losing both years. Fans blamed it on the curse of the Colonel, which may have been lifted when the statue was pulled from the canal during a cleaning. The Hanshin Tigers finally broke the curse in 2023 when they won the title after a 38-year dry spell. If those hoping the presence of a Colonel Sanders lookalike would curse the Dodgers, it did not work. Yamamoto pitched his second complete game of the post-season, only giving up one run in the Dodgers victory to tie the series at one game apiece.
