Anthony Rizzo returns to the Chicago Cubs family

Anthony Rizzo will retire as a little girl from Chicago and join the organization as a team ambassador, the team announced on Wednesday.

Rizzo, one of the stars of the 2016 championship team which ended the 108 -year -old historic drought, will be celebrated on Saturday in Wrigley Field before the Cubs match against the Rays of Tampa Bay.

After being acquired from San Diego to start the reconstruction led by Theo Epstein in 2012, Rizzo had a long and successful career on the north side, winning three stars’ nods, four gold gloves, a platinum glove and a Silver Slugger price. A cancer survivor who beat Hodgkin’s lymphoma, he devoted a large part of his time out of the field in Chicago to visit children with cancer in hospitals, including Lurie Children’s Hospital, and was appointed winner of Roberto Clemente Award in 2017 for her charitable work and foundations.

Epstein said it was just the “rizz” to which everyone revolved.

“Rizz was a guy to choose from everyone – on the field, in the clubhouse and in the community – and he never dropped us,” said Epstein in the stands on Wednesday. “The magic journey of which we have all had the chance to be part of simply does not occur without Anthony Rizzo. What a career and a heritage. “

Rizzo was the building building of Cubs rebuilding and quickly established itself as one of the most loved athletes in the city. Even his dog, Kevin, was well known. His return to Wrigley Field last September earned him the largest reception of one of the former members of the 2016 team on their reunion.

“Anthony Rizzo was the face of one of the most successful eras in the history of Chicago Cubs and we are so excited that it will be part of our organization for many years to come,” said Cubs executive president Tom Ricketts, in a press release. “His game on the field spoke of himself. Who could forget that Anthony catches Kris Bryant’s throw from the third base for the final that won the series?

“In addition, it was an inspiration for so many people out of the field through his foundation and his work with Cancer Research. Anthony’s professional career in the field could be complete, but it will be great to share this next chapter with him with the Cubs.”

Rizzo was treated at the New York Yankees on the deadline for trade in 2021 in an authorization sale which would mark the end of an era and the start of the reconstruction of Jed Hoyer which is on the target for the first appearance in the playoffs under its direction. Rizzo spent 3 1/2 seasons in New York and played in his World Series team last year before his $ 17 million option is refused, leaving him as free agent.

Rizzo, now 36, is not signed during the offseason, but had not given any publicly indication that he had finished playing. Friends like the ex-star of Blackhawks, Chris Chelios, urged him to return to the Cubs, but this scenario was never going to perform with the hit striking Michael Busch at the first goal, the veteran Justin Turner as a safeguard and Seiya Suzuki as the main designated striker.

Rizzo sat down at the place of signing an agreement with a low -saluting of a year with a team, like many veterans are forced to do so at the end of their career. His wife, Emily, gave birth to their first child, Anthony, and Rizzo spent most of his time at home in Florida as a guest analyst at MLB Network.

He was seen with his wife and child during the Yankees-Dettoit Tigers match on Wednesday at the Yankee Stadium and touched a beer after being placed on the video board. Rizzo was the leader of the Cubs clubhouse and played a decisive role in bringing a nightclub party to home victories, a DJ for the victories in playoffs and the introduction of hip-hop music and dance to the Wrigley PA system during the practice of the striker.

In “The Cubs Way”, a book of the 2016 season written by Tom Verducci, the receiver David Ross, who would later become the manager, said that Rizzo “wanted everyone to have a good time. He is more worried than everyone to have a good time and gets into second position.”

Rizzo supported this before match 5 of the 2016 World Series with the Cubs dragging Cleveland three games to one. He undressed, jumped on a sofa in the clubhouse and began to cite lines of films like “Rocky”, while the theme song of “Rocky” pressure. The Cubs won match 5 and returned to win the World Series in seven games.

The Cubs will celebrate the 10th anniversary of this championship in 2026, and obtain Rizzo as an ambassador was an important part of the meeting, which is already planned and will be celebrated next summer. He was irritated when he left in 2021, especially after Hoyer noted that the team “made offers to all those who, I believe, will exceptionally hold well and that we could not conclude agreements”.

Rizzo told David Kaplan from WMVP-Am 1000: “I am a little confused on why. Why say that? It looks like a bad break and the person who says they are doing well when they are not well.”

The parade of the first basic players of the Cubs after Rizzo included Frank Schwindel, Alfonso Rivas, Eric Hosmer, Trey Mancini, Cody Bellinger, Busch and Turner. Bellinger was inflicted on Yankees last winter in a salary dump.

But the trade with New York finally took advantage of Rizzo, who admitted as much last September when I asked him if it was better to be a Yankee than a little one.

“Yeah, in hindsight,” he replied. “Obviously, if you had asked me before being exchanged, there is no way that I would never have wanted to go elsewhere except Chicago. But being exchanged learned a lot about life in general and helped me to grow as an individual.”

Cubs ambassadors are not forced to be at the stadium all the time, but search for Rizzo to become a frequent presence in Wrigley, probably in a sort of part -time analyst position with the marquee sports network belonging to the team.

Of the other seven other CUBS Ambassadors, only Ben Zobrist played in the 2016 team. But Dexter Fowler, Jon Lester and others were retired. Cubs still need to repair the fences with Ross, who was blinded by his dismissal as a manager after the 2023 season, shortly after Ricketts talked about the excellent work he had done.

Ross has not returned to Wrigley since other than attending a concert or two. Having your old boyfriend, Rizzo, as a bodyguard could help bring Ross back into the cubs family of which he was a central element before the dismissal.

Anyway, Rizzo is now back, and he said to WSCR-AM 670 that he planned to spend his Saturday afternoon in the stands, where Changuer beer is authorized and often encouraged.