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After months of work behind the scenes, the Seattle Mariners revealed a bronze statue honoring Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki last week — the newest sculpture in the collection around T-Mobile Park celebrating franchise legends such as Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez.
Friday’s event was designed for a small crowd of reporters and team greats, though it quickly caught the eye of social media when during the reveal, the bat standing vertically in Suzuki’s iconic stance bent backward and spun. The moment brought a big laugh from attendees and Suzuki himself later joked about baseball players having to deal with broken bats.
Despite the live change in bat position, which was quickly fixed, the statue was the product of a monthslong collaboration between the Seattle Mariners, Suzuki and sculptor Lou Cella of Rotblatt Amrany Fine Art Studio in Chicago. The Mariners chose the iconic pose and the use of Suzuki’s 2001 rookie year uniform as a lookback at his extensive career with the team. Suzuki worked directly with Cella and the team throughout the process to ensure the accuracy and detail preserved in bronze.
“I actually wore the 2001 jersey as a sample for him,” Suzuki reported through an interpreter as he recalled the process. “I was happy that I was still able to fit in that uniform.”
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Suzuki’s impact on the Mariners was felt from the moment he first put that jersey in 2001, when he won both AL MVP and Rookie of the Year for a Seattle team that won an American League record 116 games. Though his Hall of Fame career included time with the Miami Marlins and New York Mets, Suzuki retired a Mariner in 2019 and ranks next to Griffey and Martinez among beloved franchise icons.
The opportunity to work on Suzuki’s sculpture was meaningful for Cella, who has created a specialty working in the professional sports space but has a particular love for baseball.
“I’m a sports fan. I have loved this stuff since I was a kid playing it. And baseball in particular, I’ve always been not just a fan of the game but I’ve been kind of a junkie,” Cella reported of working on Suzuki’s statue and his love of baseball. “It’s a great tribute and it’s the kind of thing that, for me as a fan, I enjoy a great deal and feel very honored to be a part of.”
After completion, the final bronze statue of Ichiro Suzuki was shipped from Illinois, where it was created, to Seattle, where it was secured on top of the stone monument.Statue by Rotblatt Amrani Studio. 3D scan by Yehyun Kim for ESPN
Beginning with photo inspiration, the statue evolves from a base of welded metal rods called an armature, resembling a rough stick-figure outline of the body form, into a fully sculpted clay replica.After several versions of molding, the statue eventually comes to form in its final bronze material. Cella worked with Art Casting of Illinois, a fine art bronze foundry based in Oregon, Illinois, What starts as small individual chunks of bronze, eventually is merged together seamlessly into the final statue now on display for fans visiting the Mariners’ stadium.”The closest thing I could materialistically compare it to, is to your child going off to college and turning them loose into the world in a way,” Cella spoke of moving the statue out of the work phase and onto display. At unveilings, he likes to listen in to the stories parents and grandparents tell their kids about seeing their favorite player play. “After having it all alone for so long and then turning it loose out there and listening to this history just being extended is very gratifying to me.”Although the bent-bat mishap took center stage upon reveal, the Mariners — and Suzuki himself — were quick to make light of the situation. Seattle’s social media team posted “Breaking: We’ve updated tonight’s Ichiro Replica Statue giveaway” with an image of a mini-sculpture with a bent bat, and Suzuki joked that Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera must have gotten to the statue while also giving his serious take on the honor.
“There are artists that are just at a different level, and he’s just that type of person,” Ichiro reported at the ceremony. “Just like Lou the artist, I wanted to be like that as a baseball player. You want to be different and elite.”
“The sculpting begins by welding an armature together, which is like a stick-figure skeleton,” Cella reported. “Then clay is built up on the armature, it’s done oversized, and then sculpted with various tools into the form that becomes an Ichiro Suzuki.” Photos courtesy Lou CellaThe clay phase of the project is key in fine-tuning and adjusting small details while changes are easier to make. Ichiro was key in noting small detail adjustments including the 51 on the back of the helmet. Photos courtesy Lou CellaAfter the clay sculpture itself is finalized and approved, a rubber mold and later a plaster mold are applied on the outside of the statue to make casts of the shape and all its details. Photos courtesy of Lou CellaOnce the molds have been created of the statue, they were taken to Art Castings of Illinois, a fine art bronze foundry, for the actual bronze work to be completed. Nate Ryan for ESPNAt the foundry, the molten bronze is poured in liquid form into casted molds made of a composite called a slurry. The statue is poured in lots of small pieces and then later assembled into the form. Nate Ryan for ESPNEd Muren stirs the molten bronze before pouring one of the molded pieces for the statue at the foundry in Oregon, Illinois. Nate Ryan for ESPNAfter the molten bronze is poured and cools, the mold is broken away, revealing the rough segment of the statue. Nate Ryan for ESPNWhen the clay form was getting approved, Ichiro made adjustments over video conference to small things. “The way he gripped the bat,” Cella reported. “I didn’t have the position quite right going around the handle of the bat.” Nate Ryan for ESPNThe shoelaces were the second small detail Suzuki identified on the clay version. “It was the way the laces were overlaid over one another,” Cella reported. “He turned his camera right down onto the shoe he was wearing and showed us how he laces.” Nate Ryan for ESPNEach small piece of the statue is cast separately and then merged together seamlessly so the final statue appears to have been constructed as one singular piece of bronze. Nate Ryan for ESPNCella inspects the bronze head of the Ichiro Suzuki statue, looking at the tiny details he first implemented in clay form. Nate Ryan for ESPNWhen the statue was unveiled outside of T-Mobile Park, the bat bent backward on the statue causing a laughter among attendees before it was repaired shortly after. Yehyun Kim for ESPNIchiro Suzuki laughs with his longtime mentee, Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez, after the unveiling of Suzuki’s statue outside T-Mobile Park. The statue was fixed after the ceremony and a welder was brought in to formally mend the bat. Yehyun Kim for ESPN
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