The unveiling of Seattle Mariners icon Ichiro Suzuki’s statue outside of T-Mobile Park on Friday didn’t go as planned.
During the ceremony, the bat in the statue’s hand broke as it was being revealed.
Ichiro wasn’t bothered by the malfunction, joking about legendary closer Mariano Rivera.
“I didn’t think Mariano would come out here and break the bat,” Ichiro said.
Mariners legend Ken Griffey Jr. was in attendance for the event and also joked about the broken bat.
“I did not do that,” Griffey said, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times.
The statue later appeared to be fixed.
Seattle initially announced that Ichiro would receive a statue in Aug. 2025, the same day that the team retired his No. 51 jersey.
The 10-time All-Star spent the majority of his MLB career on the Mariners, suiting up in 1,861 games with the team across two separate stints from 2001-12 and 2018-19.
Ichiro won American League MVP honors to go along with AL Rookie of the Year recognition for his 2001 season. He holds the No. 1 spot on Seattle’s all-time hits list and the No. 1 position on its stolen bases leaderboard.
