Ichiro sneaks onto Mariners bench ... with fake mustache, hood, shades
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s … Ichiro?
Yes! Ichiro, except this was his disguised alter ego, sitting in the Seattle Mariners dugout during their game at Yankee Stadium in New York on Thursday with a bushy mustache, shades and a hoodie.
Maybe this character works with Clark Kent at the Daily Planet?
Whoever he was, he wasn’t supposed to be in the dugout. MLB sets restrictions on how many coaches and players can be in there during the game, though Ichiro wasn’t so smooth in revealing his sneaky schemes earlier this year.
“I can’t say for certain that maybe I won’t put on a beard and glasses and be like Bobby Valentine and be in the dugout,” Ichiro said, the day it was announced he was changing roles and transitioning from Mariners player to Mariners front-office member.
Typically Ichiro is in full game uniform, now throwing batting practice pregame and also taking part in it. Manager Scott Servais recently campaigned to get Ichiro into the Home Run Derby at the MLB All-Star weekend next month, though Ichiro said he wouldn’t want to do that since he’s not a current player.
But during the games he leaves the bench and heads to the clubhouse or watches the game from a video room, though he’s been spotted frequently darting onto the field for postgame celebrations among the rest of the Mariners players.
A photographer from the Associated Press caught Ichiro red-handed (or at least the man believed to be him) on Thursday in his disguise, similar to Valentine’s getup when he managed the New York Mets.
In 1999, Valentine was ejected from a game he was managing in the 12th inning, but later appeared in the dugout with a fake mustache and sunglasses. He was later suspended for two games and fined $5,000.
"He was perfect. I never would have known it was him,'' Valentine texted to The Associated Press.
MLB had not announced any punishment for Ichiro’s antics.
This was the Mariners’ only trip to Yankee Stadium this year and headed to Boston to begin a three-game series with the Red Sox on Friday.
According to the Associated Press, Ichiro sat in the back row, middle of the dugout, in shorts. He was gone by the second inning of the Mariners’ 4-3 loss that completed the Yankees’ sweep.
Ichiro has been adamant he will return to playing in 2019, though he will not be able to play with the Mariners the rest of this season. The Mariners open next season in Japan with a two-game series against Oakland.
Ichiro played for the Yankees for parts of three seasons after the Mariners traded him to New York in 2012 – after 11 years in Seattle, where he was a 10-time All-Star.
TJ Cotterill: 253-597-8677
Twitter: @TJCotterill
This story was originally published June 22, 2018 at 8:06 AM with the headline "Ichiro sneaks onto Mariners bench ... with fake mustache, hood, shades."