Fans of former baseball star Ichiro Suzuki were thrown a curveball when a statue of him broke as it was being unveiled outside the home of the Seattle Mariners on Friday.
As a blue tarp was pulled off it, audience members could hear a snapping noise as the bronze figure it was shrouding suddenly appeared to drop in height. Suzuki, immortalised with a broken bat, was revealed.
Suzuki, 52, standing in front of his likeness outside T-Mobile Park, pointed incredulously at the bat before laughing.
The unveiling came a year after Suzuki was near-unanimously voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, having spent 18 years playing in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the US.
