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Seattle Mariners

Bat stolen from Ken Griffey Jr. statue outside Safeco Field

Seattle Times

The bronze Ken Griffey Jr. outside Safeco Field looks a little different.

Junior no longer has a bat. Instead, he has a nub of a bat handle, with the remaining part stolen.

“The bat was broken off,” said Rebecca Hale, Mariners Director of Public Information. “Don’t know how that was accomplished.”

Police responded to calls from passersby who witnessed the destruction of the statue at about 5 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, Seattle Police Detective Mark Jamieson said Tuesday evening.

“We arrested an adult male,” Jamieson said. “They (officers) took him into custody without incident. They did recover the bat. That’s been returned to Safeco personnel.”

The suspect has been booked into King County Jail on suspicion of felony malicious mischief, Jamieson said. Detectives are working on a follow-up investigation.

The Mariners are in touch with the statue’s sculptor, Lou Cella, who will advise them on making a “seamless” fix to the statue.

The statue was unveiled on April 13 to honor the Mariners’ Hall-of-Famer.

“I’m truly humbled and honored for this,” Griffey said during the ceremony. “I played baseball for one reason and that was just to go out and play because I love the game of baseball, and to have an organization do all these things in the last 18 months has been truly unbelievable and overwhelming.”