SEATTLE (AP) — As Seattle Mariners chairman John Stanton spoke fondly of Rick Rizzs on Wednesday morning, the longtime play-by-play broadcaster pulled a box of tissues close and looked around the team’s interview room in anticipation of the inevitable.
Rizzs, who will retire at the end of the 2026 season after his 41st year in the booth in Seattle, could only hold back tears for so long while manager Dan Wilson, superstar Cal Raleigh and dozens of others
looked on. And as the 72-year-old Rizzs recollected stories of both listening and writing to former Cubs broadcaster Jack Brickhouse as a kid while growing up on Chicago’s South Side, he finally let the waterworks flow.
“You get to a certain point where you’re not that little kid watching the games on TV,” said an emotional Rizzs, “wishing you were Jack Brickhouse at 12 years old.”
When Rizzs got the chance to call major league games after being hired by the Mariners in 1983 to pair with Hall of Fame broadcaster Dave Niehaus, he had already lived out his dream. After broadcasting minor league baseball games in Alexandria, Virginia; Amarillo, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; and Memphis, Tennessee; Rizzs’ goal was to be in the big leagues for just one year.
Instead, he’s in his fifth decade in Major League Baseball. Rizzs also broadcast games for the Detroit Tigers from 1992-1994. But, it was in the Pacific Northwest that Rizzs became a household name, laid down roots and was part of some of the most memorable moments in Mariners franchise history.
“I made Seattle my home,” Rizzs said. “I grew up in Chicago, but Seattle’s my home.”
Rizzs said he had been contemplating retirement, and even considered calling it quits on a storied career after the 2025 season, one of the most successful in franchise history. In consultation with the Mariners, Rizzs decided to embrace the spotlight and enter the 2026 season with the public knowing it would be his last.
As much as Rizzs has cherished his career as a broadcaster, he recognizes he has missed a lot, and at this stage of his life has spent a lot of time contemplating how he wants to spend it. Rizzs would like to spend more time with his grandkids, play a bit more golf and travel — to cities of his choosing, that is.
“I want to get on a plane that I want to get on,” Rizzs said to roars of laughter. “I want to go to a place that I want to go. I want to go to Italy and eat my brains out.”
But, Rizzs insisted he is not going away quite yet. He intends on going to spring training each year in Peoria, Arizona, and spending plenty of time around the Mariners. And should Rizzs have it his way, the Mariners will improve upon last year’s disappointing finish in which Seattle lost Game 7 of the American League championship series to the Toronto Blue Jays.
“We’re going to get to the World Series this year,” Rizzs said, “and we’re going to win it this year.”
Though the Mariners’ on-field performance is out of Rizzs’ control, what will be within it is cherishing every moment of his season. Rizzs looks forward to arriving early to the ballpark, chatting with players and coaches alike each day and enjoying every remaining broadcast.
From Rizzs’ point of view, it’s all been gravy after that first season broadcasting for the Mariners.
He’s been in the booth for the Mariners’ magical 1995 run to the AL Championship Series, which coincided with the King County Council approving funding for a new stadium. Rizzs donned a headset during the Mariners’ 116-win season in 2001, and was on the call for Raleigh’s game-tying, eighth-inning home run against the Blue Jays in Game 5 of the 2025 ALCS.
Suffice to say, when Rizzs said he has enjoyed the “greatest life in the world,” he meant every word of it.
“This has been truly a joy,” Rizzs said. “Lou Gehrig said it best: I’m the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.”
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