A Huastec Figure of a Ballplayer, Early Classic, ca. A.D. 250-450

the youthful figure standing ready on fragmentary outspread legs, with full ballgame paraphernalia including a thick yoke secured in the front and back, a projecting palma on his right side and a rounded element on the left, perhaps a hacha, holding a small manopla secured with ties up the arm on his left, adorned with finely sculpted necklace of olivella shells beads, and wearing a net turban. 

J.P. Cobb Collection

As shown, missing lower legs, has clean breaks and repairs on right shoulder, right elbow and left shoulder, also below waist just above hips.
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Huastec figurines are notable for the number of garbed ballplayers; some even being female figures. The ballgame is a keynote of Mesoamerican mythology and ritual activity. In its various functions it ceremonialized warfare and sacrifice, settled disputes, and served as a popular pastime while providing a metaphoric reference for life and death (Whittington, 2001:41). This particularly detailed ballplayer clearly shows the various individual elements and how they were worn. See Leyenaar (1997: pls. 4 and 5), for similar figures exhibited in the Olympic Museum, Lausanne, and Whittington, (2001:  pls. 54-58).