CHICAGO (AP) — Anthony Rizzo celebrated his retirement in the famed bleachers in Wrigley Field.
It was quite a day.
Rizzo joined the Chicago Cubs as a team ambassador on Saturday. The big first baseman threw out a ceremonial first pitch to Cubs outfielder Ian Happ, one of his former teammates, before grabbing a seat in the bleachers in left for the team’s afternoon game against Tampa Bay.
Rizzo, 36, nearly hauled in Moisés Ballesteros’ first career homer for Chicago in the second inning, but it went off his hands. A fan next to Rizzo retrieved the ball.
“He said that’s why he’s retired,” Happ said after Chicago’s 5-4 loss. “Can’t catch them anymore.”
Rizzo, a 14-year major league veteran, also joined Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder and supermodel Cindy Crawford in singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” from the bleachers during the seventh-inning stretch.
“I have one day to really live it up,” Rizzo said.
Rizzo made his major league debut with San Diego in 2011, but he rose to stardom after he was traded to Chicago in January 2012.
The three-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner hit .272 with 242 homers and 784 RBIs in 10 years with the Cubs. He helped the team win the World Series in 2016 for the franchise’s first title since 1908.
Rizzo was traded to the New York Yankees as part of a sell-off at the 2021 deadline.
Rizzo and his family were visiting Chicago for the musical festival Lollapalooza this summer when Cubs owner Tom Ricketts invited them to dinner, where they discussed the ambassador role.
“Getting traded was just such a whirlwind, heartbreaking, so many emotions and getting to play for the Yankees was so special for me,” Rizzo said. “I grew up a Yankees fan.
“To be invited back here where I really created my legacy is very special to me and very humbling.”
During Saturday’s festivities, Rizzo, a Hodgkin lymphoma survivor and 2017 Roberto Clemente Award winner for community service, wore a Cubs jersey signed by cancer patients visited by the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation. The foundation has raised funds for cancer research and support for patients’ families.
“Going through the airport pretty much every time, a family comes up to us and says, ‘You helped us here, you helped our friend here,’” Rizzo said. “That’s such a rewarding feeling.”
After breaking his right arm last year, Rizzo said he prepared his family for the possibility of his career ending. Rizzo became a free agent when the Yankees declined his $17 million option in November.
“It was kind of decided early on if I didn’t get the right opportunity it was probably going to be it,” he said. “And I couldn’t be happier.”