Seattle Mariners

The Mariners hired a mariachi band to follow Leonys Martin around on his birthday

Published Mar. 7, 2017 9:51 a.m. ET

Pete Blackburn

A happy belated birthday goes out to Seattle Mariners outfielder Leonys Martin, who celebrated his 29th year of life on Monday. I did not get him a present because there's no way to top what the Mariners surprised Martin with on his special day.

They got him a live mariachi band, which followed him around all day at spring training.

https://twitter.com/TNT_Mariners/status/838794991577128964

https://twitter.com/RyanDivish/status/838790116369821697

They even followed Martin into center field as he shagged some flyballs. That's some outstanding dedication.

https://twitter.com/AlcalaFernando/status/838796779155939328

It's worth pointing out that Martin is Cuban, so he may not fully understand why his teammates went with a staple of Mexican cultural heritage to honor him on his birthday. Also, he was given a gigantic sombrero -- another symbol of Mexican culture -- to wear around, so maybe his teammates don't know him as well as they think they do.

Either way, it's the thought that counts and this thought was tremendous.