Rick Rizzs was kind enough to spend some time with me on a trip to Chicago earlier this season. Rick has had a tremendous career. He is now finishing up his 34th season with the Mariners’ broadcast team. He’s worked with legends and seen some other legends on the field while calling games in the Pacific Northwest. But, any conversation with a Chicago area product, when dealing with baseball HAS to start with a question about which team he was a fan of, the Cubs or the White Sox?
Andy Masur: So which team DID you root for growing up?
Rick Rizzs: As a kid growing up, I was a fan of both the Cubs and the White Sox. I’m 65 years old, so back in 1959 I’m six years old I’d come home from school my mother would have the game on TV listening to Jack Brickhouse, he was my hero growing up. Along with Ernie Banks, Don Kessinger, Randy Hundley and Billy Williams and all those guys. I’d end up watching the game with my mom. Then my dad would come home and we’d watch the White Sox or listen on the radio. So, I fell in love with both the Cubs and the White Sox. “Little Louie” was my hero, Luis Aparicio, I wanted to be the next Luis Aparicio. But as far as I got in my baseball career was the JV team at Southern Illinois University.
AM: I think most of us that get into baseball broadcasting had aspirations of being a major leaguer, for me it was the curve ball that drove me to the booth, similar for you?
RR: For me it was the slider. I never saw a slider until I got to SIU and played on the JV team for about two and a half years. The slider and curveball kind of eliminates a lot of guys from that business so we go into broadcasting. It’s really paid off (for me) and I’m really blessed.
AM: You’ve gotten to work with some legends in broadcasting over the course of your career, Dave Niehaus and Ernie Harwell to name a few can you share some memories of those two gentlemen?
RR: I had the pleasure of working with Dave Niehaus for 25 years. I got to Seattle in 1983, I was here (Seattle) for 9 years then I went to Detroit to try and replace Ernie Harwell. Ernie came back so I worked with Ernie for the 1993 season. But working with Dave Niehaus was amazing. This guy was one of the great storytellers in the game of baseball, Ernie as well. I think we need to bring that magic back. We have a lot of drop ins and commercials to read during the course of a ballgame, it makes it tougher to do these days. Dave never missed a great play, in 1995 the season that really saved baseball up in the Northwest. It was a real joy and privilege working with Dave and Ernie, two Hall of Famers.
AM: Good point about the storytelling. With all that is going on in a broadcast these days, how do you get those stories in? People want to hear them, don’t they?
RR: You got to have an idea for the story right away. You can’t start a story with 2 outs because you’ll never be able to finish it. I learned that the hard way, and also Vin Scully told me that as well. He was the greatest story teller of all time. Weave it in with the play-by-play, you know talking about a story whatever it is, then here’s the pitch low and outside ball one, then continue with the story so there’s not really break in the thought. It’s really a lot of fun to try and achieve that goal.
I think that way we’re the conduit between the players and the fans and the fans get to know the players. They become household names and also, they get to know them a little bit, about where they grew up and their greatest achievements in the game of baseball. So if you are able to do that and if we can put the listener in the front row, to see the game on the radio then we’re doing our jobs.
AM: It’s such a special relationship between the fans and the radio broadcasters in baseball isn’t it?
RR: Exactly. I mean like I said earlier, Jack Brickhouse was my hero. I listened to him for many, many years. I wrote him a letter when I was 12 years old telling him I wanted to be a Major League broadcaster just like you. He wrote me back! So, because of Mr. Brickhouse I’m doing what I’m doing. I had a chance to meet him in 1983 when I first got to Seattle.
It was during Spring Training that year, we went to Ho Ho Kam Park in Mesa for a game against the Cubs. He’d been retired for a couple of years but he was at the ballpark. I got to see him and a I met him. I said, “You probably don’t remember this when I was 12 years old, I wrote you a letter and you wrote me back.” He asked “what are you doing?” I said “because of you, I’m the new announcer for the Seattle Mariners and I’m doing the game today.” He gave me a big hug, so it was really cool to see my hero.
AM: You’ve had a great run in Seattle and have had the chance to see some great games and some even better players. The one that sticks out to me is Ken Griffey Jr what was it like to be around those guys?
RR: Ken Griffey Jr to me was the greatest player I’ve ever seen. He made the game look easy and it’s not. It’s a privilege to play the game it’s not a right. He was the best I’ve ever seen defensively out there in centerfield. He played the game with the joy of a little leaguer he had the smile on his face. He brought a lot of kids to the game of baseball with the way that he played, of course his Nintendo game was huge, and his cap turned backwards and all the other things that he did and the millions of autographs that he signed.
He was amazing and still is and still works for the organization. It’s always a pleasure to see him. He’s helping out the youngsters. Randy Johnson is now in the hall of fame, Edgar Martinez, the greatest right-handed hitter I’ve ever seen, now in the Hall of Fame himself. Jay Buhner down through the years, Mike Blowers is now on TV with the Mariners. That 1995 ballclub, Norm Charlton, that was a special team.
AM: Then there’s Ichiro. Hall of Fame?
RR: No doubt about it. First ballot Hall of Famer. It was incredible when we went to Tokyo for the Opening Series in Major League Baseball in March, to start the year, but the story was Ichiro. They were his final two games in the big leagues. He finishes up with 3,089 hits, in the United States in Major League Baseball, that puts you in the Hall of Fame. He had 1,278 hits over in Japan, more hits than anybody professionally (4,367) in the game of baseball (Pete Rose finished his career with 4,256 hits). But what he did for the ballclub he made those two games “home” games for the Mariners in Tokyo, they rode that excitement.
It was amazing seeing 50-thousand fans stand up and cheer. They would not sit down, they would not leave, until Ichiro came out after that second ballgame to take a bow, a final bow. I tell you what he was something special in a Mariners’ uniform and he definitely is going to the Hall of Fame.
Andy Masur is a columnist for BSM and works for WGN Radio as an anchor and play-by-play announcer. He also teaches broadcasting at the Illinois Media School. During his career he has called games for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox. He can be found on Twitter @Andy_Masur1 or you can reach him by email at Andy@Andy-Masur.com.
