Fans cried foul after the Seattle Mariners struck out in a ceremony that was clearly off base, where a statue of baseball legend Ichiro Suzuki was unveiled with a broken bat — a real swing and a miss.
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In the livestream posted by the Mariners, fans stood behind a red rope at T-Mobile Park in Seattle on Friday, surrounding the statue with their phones in the air, ready to capture the reveal of the bronze figure.
As the announcer began the countdown, the silhouette of the upright could bat could be seen under the tarp. When the tarp was pulled away, the bat appeared to get caught and ultimately snapped.
Despite the mishap, Ichiro and Ken Griffey Jr., who also played for the Mariners, appeared to be laughing.
And it did not take long for the Seattle Mariners to respond to the accident with some comedy, either.
With the team giving away replica statues to the first 40,000 fans at the game, the Mariners posted an image to X of the replica statue — now with a broken bat — writing, “Breaking: We’ve updated tonight’s Ichiro Replica Statue giveaway.”
In January 2025, it was announced that Ichiro would be honored with a statue commemorating his legendary batting stance, according to the MLB. In July of last year, he became the fourth player whose number was retired by the Mariners and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was also honored in the Mariners Hall of Fame in 2022.
The right fielder and baseball legend was named Rookie of the Year and American League MVP in 2001, the second player in MLB history to do so in the same year, and still holds the single-season hits record with 262 in 2004, according to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Suzuki played for the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees and Miami Marlins during a career that spanned more than 2,600 games, with a .311 batting average and 117 home runs.
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