Rick Rizzs got a fitting Seattle sendoff, and this time it came at Lumen Field.
The longtime Mariners broadcaster, who retired this offseason after 41 years behind the mic, was chosen to raise the 12th Man flag before the Seahawks’ matchup with the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. In front of a packed stadium, Rizzs drew a loud reaction from the crowd - plenty of those fans had spent years hearing his voice from just across the street at T-Mobile Park.
For Seattle, it was a familiar face handling one of the franchise’s most recognizable pregame moments.
Rizzs wrapped up his Mariners run at the end of this season, closing out four decades as the club’s lead play-by-play voice. His tenure stretched back to the days when the Mariners and Seahawks still shared the Kingdome.
The flag-raising added another moment to a week of celebrations for Rizzs in Seattle. During the final weekend of the Mariners’ season, the club honored him with multiple tributes: he threw out a first pitch, a fireworks show was staged in his honor, and after the final home game he spoke to the crowd, players and coaches at T-Mobile Park. Mariners players also tipped their caps to him for his service in the booth.
Rizzs’ road to Seattle started long before that. A Chicago-area native, he grew up admiring Cubs broadcaster Jack Brickhouse and eventually followed that path into broadcasting. His career began in college at Southern Illinois, where he called College World Series baseball games along with basketball and football.
After college, Rizzs spent five years in the minor leagues doing games before a stop as sports director at WBNS-AM in Columbus, Ohio. That stretch included football broadcasts for the Ohio State Buckeyes and minor league games for the Columbus Clippers.
The Mariners brought him into their booth ahead of the 1983 season, with the late Dave Niehaus making the call. Rizzs remained a fixture there ever since, aside from a three-season run in the Detroit Tigers booth from 1992 to 1994.
Across those years, Rizzs narrated some of the most celebrated players in franchise history, including Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr., Ichiro Suzuki, Edgar Martinez and Randy Johnson.
His next Mariners honor is already set: Rizzs is scheduled to be inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in the 2027 season. He’ll become one of just two non-uniformed members in the Seattle Hall of Fame, joining Niehaus.
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