Longtime Seattle Mariners radio broadcaster Rick Rizzs has been selected for induction into the Mariners Hall of Fame, the team announced during its 50th Season
Longtime Seattle Mariners radio broadcaster Rick Rizzs has been selected for induction into the Mariners Hall of Fame, the team announced during its 50th Season Celebration at T-Mobile Park.
Rizzs, in his 41st season broadcasting Mariners games, will become the 12th member of the team’s Hall of Fame.
Rizzs will join longtime broadcast partner and friend Dave Niehaus as the only two non-uniformed members of the Mariners Hall of Fame.
His induction is scheduled for next season. Rizzs was first hired by the Mariners in 1983 to work alongside Niehaus.
He spent nine seasons with Seattle from 1983-91 before leaving for a three-year stint as the lead broadcaster for the Detroit Tigers, replacing Hall of Fame award winner Ernie Harwell.
Rizzs returned to Seattle for the 1995 season and has remained with the Mariners for the 31 years since.
His 41 seasons make him the longest-tenured broadcaster in franchise history, surpassing Niehaus’ 34-year career in Seattle.
The Mariners Hall of Fame currently includes Alvin Davis, inducted in 1997; Niehaus, 2000; Jay Buhner, 2004; Edgar Martinez, 2007; Randy Johnson and Dan Wilson, 2012; Ken Griffey Jr., 2013; Lou Piniella, 2014; Jamie Moyer, 2015; Ichiro Suzuki, 2022; and Félix Hernández, 2023.
Rizzs’ work in the Pacific Northwest has also extended beyond the broadcast booth.
He co-founded the nonprofit Toys for Kids charity in 1995. Over the past 30 years, the organization has purchased new toys for more than 360,000 children in the Pacific Northwest during the holiday season.
Toys for Kids has also awarded 80 $5,000 college scholarships over the past decade in honor of co-founder Dave Henderson. Its Rick’s Locker program provides children in need with new baseball gloves and bats.
The year-round organization also supports unhoused mothers caring for their children while seeking employment and housing and assists schoolchildren facing food scarcity or difficulty obtaining back-to-school necessities.
Rizzs grew up on the South Side of Chicago and graduated from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 1975. He began his broadcasting career calling Double-A baseball for Alexandria, Amarillo and Memphis from 1975-80.
In 1981, Rizzs became sports director at WBNS radio in Columbus, Ohio, where he called Ohio State football and Triple-A baseball for two seasons before joining the Mariners.
