Rick Rizzs: A legacy of service

The longest-tenured voice of Seattle Mariners baseball almost wasn’t.

In 1983, Rick Rizzs was serving as the play-by-play announcer for the Columbus Clippers, at the time the Yankees’ Triple-A team. He’d been in the minor leagues for nine years, still waiting on a chance at a big-league job. It seemed like his opportunity had arrived; he was one of two finalists for a job with the Seattle Mariners to serve as the great Dave Niehaus’s number two. He was set to fly to Southern California the next day to meet with team owner George Argyros before the latter shipped out on a three-week cruise to Greece.

But first, Rizzs had agreed to help the Columbus Girl Scouts with their annual cookie sale kick-off. He showed up at a Columbus mall the night before he was slated to fly out to participate in a cookie-eating contest. Never one to do things in half-measures, Rizzs ate 33 cookies in three minutes.

The next morning, Rizzs woke up with chest pains so bad he thought he was having a heart attack. He went to Columbus’s team doctor, who ordered blood tests and eventually diagnosed him with a strained sternum from overconsumption. He had to miss his flight.

“I thought my big league dream was going to be shattered,” said Rizzs, recounting the story during a press conference on Wednesday. “Dumbest thing I ever did, besides trying to follow a legend in Detroit. That’s another story.”

With the help of Mariners personnel, Rizzs was able to re-schedule his flight and make it to the meeting with Argyros, who handed Rizzs the job on the spot after Rizzs explained the reason for his delay.

“He said, ‘anybody willing to sacrifice his life for the Girl Scouts is my kind of guy.’”

Argyros—whom Rizzs would outlast in the Mariners organization—might not have known how deep that statement would cut. Over the next forty years, Rick Rizzs would become an integral part of the Mariners community, and not just behind the mic. While there haven’t been any more cookie-eating contests, Rizzs has built a legacy of giving in the Northwest that extends beyond the four-plus hours he’s on the radio every night, from his annual Toys for Kids drive that has delivered over 360,000 toys to Northwest kids over its 30 years of existence as well as other forms of year-round support for families and children, to his full-throated support of Mariners charity events, where he serves as emcee and auctioneer.

Beyond the park and his official charity exploits, Rizzs also gives to the fanbase. He’s a regular fixture at things like FanFest, the Mariners Caravan, and more informal opportunities around town, where he’s always happy to stop and chat with fans.

Part of the reason Rizzs feels so called to give is to pass on a gift he was given as a child. Growing up in Chicago, Rizzs idolized legendary Cubs broadcaster Jack Brickhouse, practicing calling his own Cubs games in the family basement. A 12-year-old Rizzs eventually wrote Brickhouse a letter asking for advice on becoming a broadcaster, and Brickhouse wrote back, encouraging him in his dreams. “That was like, my holy grail,” said Rizzs, who aims to offer his own advice and encouragement to people who come to him seeking the same—or even just a moment of his time, understanding as he is of the special relationship between broadcasters and fanbases.

“As a broadcaster, you get to know the fans, they get to know you, and that’s the beautiful part of this. I felt like I knew Jack Brickhouse long before I met him. We’re in your homes every day, or your car, or out on the beach, or in the backyard, or in the sandlot. That’s the beauty of radio. You can take us wherever you want to go. And so they feel a connection.

So when it comes time to meet [the fans], say hello. Give them a smile. Shake their hand, spend some time with them. At spring training, I like to take little walks and visit with the fans, because you’ve gotta make a fan one at a time, because they’re going to talk about it…and that connection just keeps growing and growing.“

But all that giving – the big things, and the daily grind of baseball, and one fan at a time – has taken a lot out of the 72-year-old Rizzs, who plans to retire after this season, his 52nd in baseball and 41st with the Mariners.

“I’ve missed a lot,” Rizzs said. “I love what I do. I love baseball and I love broadcasting. But let’s face it. Everybody in the game – players, managers – we make sacrifices because we’re not home. As you know, I lost my son two years ago, and I want to spend more time with my grandkids now.”

Beyond spending time with his family, Rizzs wants to spend more time with friends, having watched several of his closest friends – his broadcast partner Dave Niehaus, Dave Henderson, Julio Cruz, Joe Wingen from the Joker Pub in Issaquah – pass away over the past 20 years. He’s had his own health scares too, most notably the serious ATV accident two years ago that fractured vertebrae in his neck and back. That came after a prostate cancer diagnosis in the 2023 off-season. And then there was the freak accident last spring when he got hit in the head with a foul ball while broadcasting one of the Mariners’ spring training games.

“At 72, you start to think, okay, what do I want to do with the rest of my life? What is the next chapter going to look like?”

Rizzs still plans to be highly involved in the Mariners organization, speaking as part of the alumni group, visiting the park and the players. You don’t just walk away from a home you’ve had for four decades.

But after years of giving, it’s time for Rizzs to take.

“I want to get on a plane that I want to get on, that’s going a place where I want to go,” he said, jabbing his finger into his chest. “I want to go to Italy and eat my brains out, just eat all the pasta that’s made in Italy and drink wine. I want to see the world. I’ve seen enough of…Toronto.”

Eating his beloved Italian cuisine while traveling the world is a well-earned pivot from cramming down three dozen Girl Scout cookies at a local mall. Whatever his next chapter has in store for Rick Rizzs, we all hope it has as much to give him as he has given all of us in the Mariners community.

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