Watching Anthony Rizzo’s rise to stardom was nothing short of a baseball fan’s fantasy come true, as the player and the team together reached heights that made “America’s Pastime” a religious experience for the home of deep dish pizza and the friendly confines of Wrigley Field.
Being a life-long Chicago Cub fan myself, I have witnessed the multi-season heartbreak that began in 1969 as the New York Mets took an almost certain Cubs championship appearance and turned it into a black mark in its history-and made a then seven-year-old cry for days. For decades, the “North Siders” finished near the basement in standings, with a couple of promising seasons in the mix.
My parents’ honeymoon was a Chicago Cubs game in August of 1961, the year Roger Maris broke the Babe’s single season home run record (kind of). Growing up, “The Pizza Man” Ron Santo was our guy. #10 gave us thrills and spills-Gold Glove performances at third base, hits and homers at the plate. He truly loved the game like few others. That was until 2012 when I saw another player at the other corner of the infield emerge, Anthony Rizzo.
Santo retired in 1974, fifteen years before Anthony Vincent Rizzo was born in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. And it wasn’t until the proud Italian American joined the team that the “Santo Effect” returned for me.
The first baseman was a superstar athlete with an older brother who served as his athletic motivation growing up. “John is two years older than me, and he really set the bar,” Anthony said.
But it wasn’t always hits and home runs for Rizzo. As an eighteen-year-old member of the Boston minor league team in 2008, Anthony was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. After six months of chemotherapy, he was told he was in remission. “It hit me and my family hard, but I wasn’t going to let it beat me,” said Anthony. “My family was with me all the way; I wouldn’t have made it without them.”
Anthony made it to the big leagues with the Boston Red Sox in 2007 and then the San Diego Padres in 2011. Then, in what was to become the beginning of a magical chain of events, he was traded to the Chicago Cubs in 2012. For the next few seasons, he became part of a team-building initiative that is one for the baseball franchise textbook. He was humble, sincere and lived for the game. Each season he got stronger. He ultimately became a three-time All Star, a Platinum Glove and four-time Gold Glove Award winner as a Cub.
After a chance meeting with Mike Piazza at the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame, Anthony played for Team Italy in the 2013 World Baseball Classic. “I wasn’t good enough to play on the US team, but I come from a very strong Italian background and to represent the whole country was a pretty cool experience,” he jokingly said.
In 2016, an historic event happened that literally shook the world of sports. The Chicago Cubs, reminiscent of the 1985 Chicago Bears and almost every one of the “Jordan Years” for the Chicago Bulls, dominated the season with a 103-58 record. Rizzo led the team’s personalities and professionals, and the Chicago Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years! That was before World War I, five years before Babe Ruth’s debut and just fifteen years after Cracker Jack was introduced at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago! Yes, it truly shook the wide world of sports.
All along his journey, Anthony’s parents, John, a life-time ADT Alarm Company employee, and his mom, Laurie, a retired bartender, have been his driving force. His grandparents were from Ciminna, Sicily and he attributes his time with them that gave him his true identity as an Italian American. “I have great memories of Sunday dinners, I learned a lot at that dinner table,” Anthony said.
Although he was born in South Florida, his folks were from Lyndhurst, New Jersey. He would spend many summers there with his cousins, to the point where he would identify more as a Jersey native than a Floridian. “I still remember the lemon ice in Jersey,” he said. Today, that same Italian ice shop has an “Anthony Rizzo Flavor.”
In 2012, he established The Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation, a nonprofit that benefits cancer research and supports families fighting the disease. To this day, the foundation supports many children’s charities including a place very near and dear to his heart, the Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. “I try to get there as much as I can. I love visiting the kids. It really brings me back, but it also makes me realize where I could have been,” Anthony said.
Anthony married a Cubs intern, Emily Vakos in 2018. They adopted a dog two years later. His name is Kevin.
In 2021, his Chicago Cubs blue turned into Yankee pinstripes as he was traded to New York. “To live in a city like New York and to play in Yankee Stadium really is an incredible feeling, one I would wish every player experiences,” Rizzo said. “I am on a team where you are expected to win daily, and that makes you work harder.”
But it wasn’t until September 6 of this year, three years since his departure from the Cubs and eight years since he caught the very last out of that game 7 of the 2016 World Series win that he stepped back onto Wrigley grass. “It was so emotional! It was me, my wife, Kevin and so many friends and family all together, back to where it all began. The crowd was the loudest I have heard since we won in ’16,” he said. “I got choked up as I walked into the outfield and saw those vines out there!”
Anthony Rizzo, a humble hero that helped bring pride to the team that means so much to the City of Chicago. For me, he helped my dad AND Ron Santo truly experience what heaven was really like.