Rick Rizzs says the 2026 season will be his last at the microphone, setting up the end of a 41-year run with the Seattle Mariners. The longtime broadcaster, the longest-tenured voice in team history, made the retirement timeline clear earlier this year.
That is why fans are paying attention now. Rizzs, 72, has been part of Mariners radio since 1983, returned to Seattle in 1995 after a brief stint in Detroit and became one of the voices tied to the club’s memories across generations.
For Rizzs, the decision follows a career that started long before Seattle. He grew up in Chicago, played in a sandlot behind his childhood home and later majored in radio and TV at Southern Illinois University. He spent eight years in the minor leagues before joining the Mariners, and he said Dave Niehaus was the reason he came to Seattle in the first place.
He still remembers how early the dream began. At 12 years old, in 1965, he wrote to Jack Brickhouse after listening to baseball on the radio and said he wanted to be a Major League broadcaster. Brickhouse and Bob Elson showed him what the job could sound like, and Rizzs has said he could picture Wrigley Field long before he ever got there.
The retirement plan also carries a small contradiction that fits the end of a long road. Rizzs says he does not want to keep traveling for work after 52 years, including eight years on buses in the minor leagues, but he also talks about wanting to travel on his own terms. He wants to see Europe, Italy and Rome, and he said he wants to meet the pope.
What he wants most, though, is time. Rizzs said he has three grandkids and wants more time with them, along with more time for himself after decades spent moving from ballpark to ballpark. He said he wanted to stay in one place for a long time, and that is exactly what Seattle became for him.
The only thing not fixed yet is the exact final call. The 2026 season is the endpoint Rizzs has already given, but no specific retirement date beyond that season has been set. For Mariners listeners, that means one more season with a familiar voice before the booth changes for good.
