Rizzo celebrated at Wrigley retirement ceremony

CHICAGO -- Nearly a decade after helping the Chicago Cubs to its first World Series title in 108 years, former first baseman Anthony Rizzo returned to Wrigley Field on Saturday to officially retire from playing while being appointed an ambassador to the team. Rizzo, 36, played for the New York Yankees in the World Series last fall but mounting injuries contributed to him calling it quits this season.

"The last couple years I was banged up a little bit, but last year after breaking my arm I told my parents, I told my wife, 'hey, enjoy this ride,'" Rizzo said in a news conference on Saturday morning. "So it was in the back of my mind a little bit. ... When it didn't really pick up, and the right opportunities didn't arise ... it was kind of decided early on that if I didn't get the right opportunity, it was probably going to be it, and I couldn't be happier."

Before Saturday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Rizzo walked the outfield with his family while being cheered by Cubs fans before the team feted him with a video montage from his playing days in Chicago. He threw out the first pitch to former teammate Ian Happ, who later acknowledged him by playing Rizzo's walk-up music before his first at-bat. Happ came up the year after the Cubs won the World Series in 2016, a lasting memory for the retiring first baseman.

"When we won, that global impact we had on a fan base on generations of Cubs fans, is still lasting," Rizzo said. "We're almost going on 10 years and anywhere we go, you hear stories. ... I thought the coolest thing getting traded (in 2021) was that first year every single stadium I went to, there was so many Cubs fans in my jersey coming to see me as a Yankee, and I'll never forget that."

Rizzo hit 242 home runs in a Cubs uniform which he wore for a decade of his career. Current Cubs manager Craig Counsell experienced him as a foe while managing the Milwaukee Brewers beginning in 2015, not long after Rizzo's career took off.

"I always thought Rizzo and [Javy] Baez were kind of the heart of this thing and kind of the engine of those Cubs teams," Counsell said. "I put Jon Lester in there too actually. And it was because it just felt like he was impacting everything from the team's personality to their play on the field."

After beating cancer in 2008, Rizzo started the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation which eventually led him to earning the Roberto Clemente Award in 2017, the highest honor MLB bestows on a player for his off-the-field contributions.

"I remember looking at my mom and saying, I want to start a foundation," Rizzo recalled. "I wanted to be like Lance Armstrong because Lance Armstrong had the Live Strong foundation, and it was so big at the time. And to be able to make an impact, 18, 19 years later, and to have a lasting legacy here in Chicago, and all over the country is just something bigger than the game."

Rizzo joked that the thing he misses most from his playing days is being able to use "multiple towels" the team provides after showering in the locker room. He also misses his teammates.

"As far as the game, I miss the guys," he said. "I miss the struggle with the guys because the ups and downs are great. But I miss the camaraderie."

Rizzo sat in the left-field bleachers for Saturday's game, nearly catching a home run ball off the bat of rookie Moises Ballesteros in the bottom of the second inning. He wanted to experience the crowd, which cheered him on through his many years in a Cubs uniform.

"Every day you come in from a late night and you're grinding, and it's September 13th today and you're still a little bit a ways from the end of the tunnel, but someone's coming for the first time and to watch this game, and they've had this on their calendar probably for so long," Rizzo said. "So you get on that field, and that energy that the fans give you is amazing."