Rizzo officially retired today and I want to talk about him briefly because he’s my #1 favorite Cub of my life.
He deserves a book but for now the best I can do is a simple blog, and the purpose of this one is to emphasize the biggest things that stand out to me about Anthony Rizzo. And specifically, what made him such a unique baseball player for the Chicago Cubs.
So let’s do that.
Here’s what stands out most:
1. Quality At Bats – these might sound very simply and basic but I’m starting with the quality of his plate appearance. He was so competitive every single pitch and he never wavered from his approach. He wanted to pull mistakes but drive the ball to left center. He took what was given to him and was rarely overmatched by fastballs. And maybe not the sharpest guy (no offense) but certainly one of the smarter At Bats we’ve seen where a Cubs uniform of this generation. Most important though is just how competitive he would be pitch-to-pitch. If he swung through a fastball, he got sharped within that plate appearance. If he got beat in the 1st inning then he looked better in the 3rd. So on and so forth. He never mailed it in. Never stopped caring. Never stopped wanting to dominate the opposition and that’s how I define him as a ballplayer.
2. Competitiveness – I just talked about this but I want to emphasize a brief story. I got to meet him early in his career through Dante and that turned social. So we’re sitting at a bar one night after the Cubs played the Pirates. Rizzo is the only Cub. There’s a couple Pirates out. We’re drinking at a bar called Rebel that’s now Country Club. In my pursuit of conversation, I asked the table So how good is this Kris Bryant guy supposed to be? And how much better are the Cubs going to be when he gets up? And with those words, I could see Rizzo visibly wanted to puke. He groaned. You’re one of those guys Carl? I had no idea what he meant. I pressed on. He’s basically our best prospect of all time and you can protect each other. And then a quick snap. Rizzo wasn’t necessarily mad but certainly needed to emphasize a couple basic things to me in that moment. I’m an All Star. I hit 3rd in the big leagues. I’ve been doing this for years while you’re asking me about getting protection from a minor leaguer next year? And you think I’m excited about that? Do you not get how this works? Boy that got so awkward. I made my counter argument. But it fell so flat and it comes back to Rizzo’s attitude. He would not let me off on this one because it had grown into such an annoying storyline for the 2014 Cubs – are you excited for Kris Bryant to join the team? It was such a big talking point that Rizzo basically spun my question into an opportunity to vent about Chicago media. Do people not understand it’s our clubhouse? Nobody in the big leagues gives a fuck about a minor leaguer. Nobody up here cares. WHEREAS YOU WOULD EXPECT – yeah I’m super pumped to get a big righty cleanup hitter behind me. No. No my friends. Not at all. I got a full blown explanation on the nuance and hierarchy of clubhouse relationships and more specifically, just how much it impacted him that people were diminishing his 155 OPS+ in 2014 at the expense of his future alongside a big prospect. Sounds simple. Sounds crazy. But I can’t emphasize enough how much this changed my perspective towards his competitiveness. He should be excited to hit behind me. Not the other way around.
3. Connecting the clubhouse – I’ve logged a lot of time and experience talking with people from the World Series era and maybe the biggest takeaway is just how much Jon Lester dominated the clubhouse scene. He was, by far and away, the biggest alpha male in MLB and set out to carry himself that way. It created a competitive environment that drove success. But it also created a weird place for the younger prospects to come up and establish themselves. Other starters had to fit into Jon’s world. A lot of relationship-catering and just social dynamics that start and end with Jon Lester. Not calling him a bad guy by any stretch but more just establishing that he was a dominant and sometimes socially-difficult teammate. Hopefully one day Ian Happ can tell some stories on his podcast but for now I just want to focus on how Rizzo bridged the gap to Lester. Something no other young guy in the organization could figure out – Rizzo got Lester’s blessing. And that might sound stupid, but that means a lot. You’re get the inside jokes. You sit in the back of the plane. You go to the team dinners. You hang out away from the field. You’re on the boat and in the fantasy league and family friends and all that shit. And while I know this sounds basic, start naming young players from the Cubs era and nobody else is even remotely close to this aspect. Baez? Addison? KB? Almora? Contreras? Schwarber? There’s so many young impact players that were squarely on the outside of the veteran core save for Rizzo. And I sincerely believe/know that Rizzo’s relationship with Lester (and Ross) brought the rest of the clubhouse together because Anthony was friends with just about everyone. Good to everyone. Open and available to everyone. Mean? Absolutely – he talked more shit than anyone. But WITHOUT Rizzo, I think you have a severely fractured and significantly less fun atmosphere behind the scenes. I think without Rizzo, Maddon and Lester end up clashing much harder and much sooner. And I think without Rizzo, there’s no way the Lester signing turns as well as it did and that’s because he connected the clubhouse.
4. Charity – Arguably the most charitable Chicago athlete of my life. Certainly the most visible and there’s not a lot to hammer here that isn’t already blatantly obvious. To be the face of the lineup and the leader of the Cubs. To bring us our first championship in 108 years. And then to care more about the cancer wing at the local Children’s Hospital is just about the most powerful shit I can reflect on with this guy. Ballplayer? Amazing. But as a man? I don’t think we’ve had one better wear the uniform.
5. Playing through injuries – just about every year, he had multiple opportunities to take extended time on the IL. Back. Knee. Shoulder. Ankle. You name it, he blew it out at some point and almost always played through pain. So much that averaging 153 games a year with his body issues should be celebrated so much more. Like the time he played on a level 3 ankle sprain, then converted to hit leadoff all while Javy Baez went home a couple weeks early that season with a jammed thumb. That was a crazy time. And in hindsight, Rizzo’s toughness only stands out more when you consider his peers. Just a real shame he never took steroids because I really think he has the mental makeup to play 162 every year for like 15 straight years. Sumbitch WANTED IT.
6. More than anything else, he was OUR GUY – The worst thing about pro sports in comparison to other levels is that professional just feels so far away. The players are mercenaries. The decision making mysterious. The cost to attend is substantial. You might get a couple games a year if you’re very lucky. But most of us are once a summer and watching the rest of TV with millions and millions of fans across the world. It’s just so big and distant and constantly changing and utterly emotionless to the point we constantly remind ourselves that Pro Sports Are A Business. And then Anthony Rizzo shows up one day and treats it like an American Legion team. Probably the most impactful indirect thing he did for Cubs fans anywhere is making us feel like we’re all boys togetheer. Like he’s one of the guys who lives and breaths winning and losing. Like it actually mattered to him to be a Chicago Cub in the community with the fans. He wanted to be one of us and that’s ultimately how we find him so lovable. Constantly smiling. Always enjoying himself. Always playing hard and bringing life to such a boring and seemingly endless game. And because of that, we viewed him so differently and cheered that much harder. All because we shared a special bond with Rizzo and I know the rank and file Cubs fans reading this know exactly what I mean.
Which is why I’m so comfortable and confident saying the following:
- Anthony Rizzo is my favorite Cub of my life
- Anthony Rizzo is the most important position player from the World Series core
- Cubs fans everywhere have lived a much better life because of Anthony Rizzo, and
- We’re very lucky we got to watch him play for the Chicago Cubs
Congratulations to Anthony (and Emily) on an amazing career and I can’t wait to see more of him in his official position as a Cubs ambassador.