Anthony Rizzo Retires as Chicago Cub After 14-Year MLB Career

Chicago Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo is closing his chapter with the MLB.

Rizzo, 36, returned to Wrigley Field on Saturday, September 13, to retire as a Cub as the team took on the Tampa Bay Rays. (The athlete played for the New York Yankees in the World Series last year, but injuries contributed to him hanging up his cleats 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, [Emily], ‘Hey, enjoy this ride,’” Rizzo said in a news conference, per ESPN. “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.”

Ahead of the Saturday game, Rizzo walked the outfield with his family and threw out the first pitch to former teammate Ian Happ. While reflecting on his next step, Rizzo explained that he intended on sitting in the bleachers.

“I’m going to eat a hot dog. I’m going to drink some adult beverages. And, are we allowed to do the beer snake? ‘Cause I will be the rally starter,” he told reporters at a pregame press conference, before adding, “I have one day to really live it up.”

While watching the game from the stands, Rizzo sported a jersey that was “signed by all the patients we have visited over the years who were battling cancer,” he wrote via X. He also leapt up to catch a home run ball — and narrowly missed.

“That’s why I’m retired,” Rizzo quipped, per the Cubs.

The MLB player spent 10 of his 14 years as a pro with the Cubs, helping the team win its first World Series title in 108 years in 2016.

“When we won, that global impact we had on a fan base on generations of Cubs fans, is still lasting,” Rizzo said on Saturday, per ESPN. “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.”