Category: Sports News

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.

Enjoy this while it lasts.

Because when a salary cap or some other mechanism to limit spending is implemented – and it will be implemented – the golden era of Dodgers baseball will be over.

This isn’t to say the Dodgers won’t remain one of baseball’s smartest franchises. They will. This isn’t to say they won’t still be considered a destination team for free agents. They will.

Thinking that a bright front office and winning culture will allow the Dodgers to maintain their current level of dominance, however, fails to appreciate how special the current roster is and the role money played in building it.

How good are these Dodgers?

They won a second consecutive World Series last year, and their players later acknowledged they didn’t even play well. Think about this: How much better does a team have to be than its competition to play so-so and come out on top in a sport in which the best team usually doesn’t win the championship?

In Major League Baseball right now, there are the Dodgers and there is everyone else. 

That doesn’t mean I believe the owners want to impose a salary cap because of concerns about competitive balance. Many of these same owners have never seemed to care enough about winning to place a competitive product on the field, and that was the case even before Shohei Ohtani signed with the Dodgers and handed them a blank check to build their current super team.

Whether the owners are making good-faith arguments doesn’t really matter. They want to control the cost of labor, and they will. The current collective bargaining agreement will expire Dec. 1, and the players will almost certainly be locked out. In the negotiations for a new deal, time will be on the owners’ side. Both the players and owners will be hurt if games are lost in 2027, but the owners are better positioned to withstand the damage. They have more money.

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Why the owners want to do this is another subject to be explored on another day. The point is that when the Dodgers return from the anticipated lockout, they will return to a new reality, whether it’s with a salary cap or more severe luxury-tax penalties. The regulations designed to break up their team might not take effect immediately – there’s an assumption in the industry that teams will be granted a grace period of a couple of seasons to become compliant – but those rules will eventually be in place.

Dodgers management has downplayed the possible effects of spending restrictions by pointing to the numerous advantages they have. 

“We have an organization that whatever rules or regulations, constructs are put in front of us, we’re going to dominate,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Roberts was right – up to a point. The Dodgers have a well-stocked farm system that regularly produces plenty of serviceable major leaguers. They have a robust analytics department. They have a capable front-office leader in Andrew Friedman. They have a clubhouse peacekeeper in Roberts. The restrictions on spending won’t apply everywhere, and if the Dodgers continue outspending their rivals in those areas, they could remain the sport’s leading franchise.

But prevent them from spending $400 million annually on players and they will go from being a historically dominant team to just an extremely well-run team. A club that should win the World Series every season will become a club that could win the World Series every season. That’s a significant difference. 

This isn’t football. Ohtani can’t be involved in every offensive play, as, say, Patrick Mahomes was for the Chiefs when they won Super Bowls. There’s a reason baseball didn’t have any back-to-back champions in the 25 years between the Yankees and Dodgers. Safeguarding against the dumb luck that presents itself in the sport, particularly with an expanded postseason field, requires a team to be much, much, much better than everyone else. Building in that kind of margin is close to impossible without an enormous advantage in financial resources.

The Dodgers will always have their stars, and when Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman slow down or retire, they will still be able to replace them. But the players a level below will be affected. Bringing in high-level supporting actors such as Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman will become more difficult. And when the Dodgers make mistakes, they won’t be able to just throw money at the problem, as they did this winter when they signed Edwin Diaz to make up for the Tanner Scott gaffe.

More of their roster will have to be homegrown. If the Dodgers were already living in that world last year, Alex Freeland might have been starting for them in the World Series instead of Edman. They would have lost a little here, a little there, and suddenly, the gap between the Dodgers and every other team wouldn’t have been as large as it was.

Whatever happens, the Dodgers should remain the best team in baseball. But they won’t be what they are now, which is one of the most powerful teams in history, if not the most powerful. The clock is ticking on this version of the Dodgers. Enjoy this while it lasts.

Short term, reasons for optimism are obvious around the Dodgers. 

The club is running things back with virtually the same core that spearheaded consecutive World Series championships over the last two seasons. Kyle Tucker and Edwin Díaz were added in blockbuster free-agent signings this winter. And as prohibitive title favorites again in 2026, the Dodgers, who are enjoying an already-polished golden era of baseball, could be primed for an even brighter shine.

The more uncertain question hanging over the club now: How long can it keep this level of dominance going?

After all, for all the Dodgers’ star-level talent, their roster is aging, with half of their projected lineup already 33 or older. Within the next two years, foundational pieces including Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and Teoscar Hernández –– plus, very likely Tucker, if he exercises his opt-out clause –– will all be out of contract, creating key voids across the diamond. At some point, their lucrative long-term commitments to Mookie Betts (who is signed through his age-39 season), Will Smith (signed through his age-38 season) and maybe even Shohei Ohtani (signed through his age-38 season) could start to feel more burdensome than beneficial, too.

Mix in the looming threat of a salary cap that MLB owners are expected to push for during next winter’s CBA negotiations and the Dodgers’ future could soon face renewed challenges.

“You have to account for some age,” manager Dave Roberts said recently. “This team is not gonna be together forever.”

This, however, is where club officials have voiced confidence in the team’s extended time horizon –– citing their dual objectives to maximize the championship window they are in now without, as president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman often terms it, “falling off a cliff” further down the line.

“You don’t want to be flippant about what we have right now in this moment in time,” Friedman said last week. “That being said, we have to try to balance it with three, four, five years out.”

If MLB’s current financial structure were to remain unchanged, of course, the Dodgers’ long-term plans would be simple. They could likely maintain their historic spending levels. They could fill holes with free-agent signings. They could lock a new core of stars up to long-term deals.

Alas, that’s unlikely to be the case.

With the league’s current CBA set to expire Dec. 1, a labor battle is already beginning to brew between MLB and its players’ union. The industry expectation is that the owners –– in part as a reaction to the Dodgers’ financial dominance of the sport –– will push for a salary cap. And even if they don’t get one, it’s possible that harsher luxury-tax penalties or other mechanisms to curb spending could be introduced.

To this point, the Dodgers are still waiting to see what the future will look like.

They have baked some of the uncertainty into their recent decision-making process. For example, the team’s general preference this winter was to avoid any free-agent contracts of more than three years, per sources, in part because of a growing expectation that if the league were to institute a salary cap, it would come with a multiyear adjustment period to allow bigger-spending teams like them to gradually become compliant.

At the same time, several key organizational voices have downplayed the impact a salary cap or altered economic landscape would make on the team’s ability to remain an annual contender.

“We have an organization that whatever rules or regulations, constructs are put in front of us, we’re going to dominate,” Roberts said at last month’s winter meetings, after saying publicly he would be OK with a salary cap. “Let us know the landscape, and then I’ll bet on our organization.”

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“I don’t know what the rules may be,” team president Stan Kasten echoed. “But I think we have an organization staffed with people who can help us contend every year.”

The primary source of that optimism –– in a salary-cap world or not –– is rooted in the Dodgers’ highly touted current farm system, which is widely considered among the strongest in the sport. 

While the club lacks an abundance of surefire future stars (outfielder Josue De Paula, a consensus top-25 prospect in the sport, is the biggest potential exception), rival evaluators have highlighted the overall depth and upside of the Dodgers’ current pipeline. Of the various top-100 prospect rankings published by baseball outlets in recent weeks, the Dodgers have had anywhere from four to seven players ranked.

In the outfield alone, the Dodgers have up to eight names they forecast as potential big-league options in the next 2-3 years (including De Paula, Eduardo Quintero, Zyhir Hope, Mike Sirota, James Tibbs III, Zach Ehrhard and recent top-round picks Charles Davalan and Kendall George). That was another reason why, when it came to their negotiations with Tucker specifically, they preferred a shorter-term deal; betting that at least a couple of their up-and-coming prospects will prove to be productive MLB hitters once Tucker is gone.

“Infusing young players over that time is going to be really important for us to be able to maintain (this level of success),” Friedman said.

That sentiment would become even more true if MLB stiffens its spending rules. In that environment, developing young talent would be crucial to building cost-effective roster depth. It would also provide opportunities on the trade market, which would only figure to grow in importance.

“There are many people who value our minor-league depth, right at the top of the industry,” Kasten said. “And we’re gonna need that.”

Indeed, for the Dodgers, it all comes back to the fear of “the cliff” –– and making sure the team’s current dynasty, 13-year playoff streak and seemingly unstoppable run of annual dominance continues for as long as possible.

Regardless of what MLB’s future rules might be.

“There’s just so much unknown around that,” Friedman said. “I’ve now been through a lot of CBAs and have tried to get cute leading into a CBA. Like, ‘OK, this is where it might be going.’ (Right now), we have no idea. We are sitting in the cheap seats on that. So for us, it’s about, whatever the rules are, reading and reacting to it and doing everything we can within the rules to be as good as we can be.”

A lot has been said about the rebuild of the St. Louis Cardinals and for good reason. The roster has been a work in progress in recent years, but what about the status of Busch Stadium and the St. Louis Cardinals TV deal? Both will play a role in the future of the team and where it goes from here.

I haven’t seen much discussion about what Bill Dewitt Jr. and Bill Dewitt III had to say during the recent Winter Warmup, but several comments addressed one big issue now and one that might become a big issue in the next few years. The need for the current Busch Stadium to get upgrades and renovations and the status of the St. Louis Cardinals TV deal.

When asked where the St. Louis Cardinals stand with the TV deal that remains to be resolved, Bill Dewitt Jr. said “From an internal business standpoint, it’s fairly disruptive in the sense that we’re trying to figure out whether we do another deal with FanDuel sports and have the status quo…or move over to MLB Media which a number of teams have done…both options are on the table still…we’ve been triaging the situation for awhile…having said that, from a fan’s standpoint, there shouldn’t be much interruption at all”. He inferred that no matter which road they chose, they’re hopeful that St. Louis Cardinals might end up on new platforms like YouTube TV, Amazon, etc. I saw an estimate by MLB.com today that teams like the Cardinals moving from a cable deal to MLB Media might result in huge loss of revenue. It said “For the clubs that lost their RSN deals, the broadcast deals replacing them have, on average, paid out about 50% of what clubs had received from their former cable deals.”

Bill Dewitt Jr. was also asked about how upcoming stadium improvements might be affected by the competitiveness of the team. He said “I would say it’s related, but not necessarily directly linked. We’re dealing with a stadium that’s 20 years old and it’s served us incredibly well. We plan on being here for a long, long time…but we’re going to have to do a project that’s multi-faceted at some point here in the near future and that time frame is dictated more by the physical reality of things than it is the competitive cycle, but you’d love to time it up…if we’re a huge playoff contender and a likely deep October type of team, you’d love for that to coincide with stadium renovations…but I don’t think they’re directly linked”. When asked about the timing of stadium upgrades, he said “sooner rather than later”, but he went on to talk about how they’re studying the Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals interactions with the state of Missouri before they decide how they want to move forward. The context of their statements makes it clear that they have no plans to lobby for a new stadium in the near future, but upgrades to the current Busch Stadium are desirable over the next few seasons.

When you try to get a 10,000 foot view of the status of the St. Louis Cardinals right now, you can see that there are a lot of moving parts and much uncertainty. The DeWitt family says they are committed to making good baseball decisions now and they vow to invest in the team even more when it’s clear the Cardinals are ready to make a deep October run, but I have to wonder how the loss of TV revenue and the need for investment in Busch Stadium will factor in to the overall economy of the club. A perfect scenario would be for the stadium to get the upgrades it needs and a new more prosperous TV deal gets put in place when the St. Louis Cardinals new core is developed and ready to compete for titles again. Navigating from where we are today to that point is tricky. That’s a lot of “rebuilds” that need to be done right and soon.

While it took longer than some would've hoped, the Yankees re-signed star Cody Bellinger last week to keep him in the Bronx for the foreseeable future.

Bellinger, who had discussions with multiple teams, agreed to return to New York on a five-year, $162.5 million deal that includes opt-outs after the 2027 and 2028 seasons. The new contract also includes a full no-trade clause and a $20 million signing bonus.

But it wasn't the money that sold Bellinger on coming back to the Yanks after his first season with the team, it was his belief in the group itself.

"It feels good. I came last year. The locker room and everything is a really special environment. Yankee Stadium was a special place to play and I really enjoyed my time," Bellinger said. 

"This year, after lots of conversations with Scott [Boras] and the free agent processes, it's an interesting process for sure and it's exciting as well. Ultimately once it all came to fruition there at the end, I'm very excited. I'm very excited to be back. I'm feeling good. I'm ready to get up to Tampa and get going."

When Bellinger rejoins the Yanks at spring training within the next two weeks, there will be plenty of familiar faces. In fact, most of the starting lineup will be the same as it was last season. 

That detail was attractive to Bellinger as he has full confidence in his Yankees teammates and believes they can go further than they did in 2025.

"Actually, I feel really good with that," Bellinger said. "Obviously, it might not be what everyone wants to hear, but I really do love the group that we had. We had a special unit, we had great chemistry that I don't think could be understood unless you're in the clubhouse. We all play for each other. On top of that, we have some important pieces coming back. We all played well.

"I'm excited to run it back with those guys and I'm fully confident in that group."

Bellinger hit .272 with 29 home runs and 98 RBI over 152 games during his first year in Yankees pinstripes, but the season ended prematurely in the ALDS. He, reigning MVP Aaron Judge, and the rest of the Yanks will now look to use the 2025 season as a building block and find a way to bring World Series title No. 28 to New York in 2026.

"Special man, special," Bellinger said about Judge. "There's not enough positive words to say. Obviously we all know what he does on the field is truly special. What he brings into the locker room, what he brings as a teammate, the confidence that he instills in everyone in the locker room. He's a huge part of the success of this organization. 

"Ultimately, when you have the opportunity to play alongside a future Hall of Famer already, you want to go and you want to win that ring. You want a parade down New York City. You want it for Judgey, of course, you want it for the fans. Ultimately, that's the main goal here, have a parade down the city of New York. That's what I want to do, that's what I want to strive to do."