The Seattle Mariners on Friday unveiled a statue of Ichiro Suzuki, only it had a big problem.
The Mariners had announced last year that they would be building a statue of Ichiro to be unveiled during the 2026 season. The team retired Suzuki’s jersey number 51 last year, and this year, they unveiled a statue of him ahead of their game against the Houston Astros at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, Wash.
As a cover for the statue was removed, the bat broke.
We have a malfunction pic.twitter.com/4Ga4vvaIu5
— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) April 10, 2026
Though the mishap was embarrassing, the Mariners’ social media team rolled with it.
“Breaking: We’ve updated tonight’s Ichiro Replica Statue giveaway,” they wrote in a post on X.
Breaking: We’ve updated tonight’s Ichiro Replica Statue giveaway. pic.twitter.com/EcFfkaAUd6
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) April 10, 2026
Their post showed a photo of Ichiro holding a broken bat. If they produced some bobblehead versions of that statue, it would probably become quite the collectible.
Ichiro came over to MLB from Japan for the 2001 season. He made an immediate impact and won both AL MVP and AL Rookie of the Year that season. He played 14 of his MLB seasons with the Mariners, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2025. Even his election to the Hall of Fame came with a complication.
