{"id":683720,"date":"2026-03-26T18:33:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T18:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/683720\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T18:33:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T18:33:24","slug":"im-going-to-enjoy-every-drop-rick-rizzs-embraces-final-opening-day-as-mariners-eye-world-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/683720\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m going to enjoy every drop\u2019: Rick Rizzs embraces final Opening Day as Mariners eye World Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was originally posted to MyNorthwest.com<\/a><\/p>\n

As the Seattle Mariners prepare to open their 50th season<\/a> Thursday night, longtime broadcaster Rick Rizzs finds himself savoring every moment of what will be his final year calling games for the franchise.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI just heard their music, and I just got chills,\u201d Rizzs told \u201cSeattle\u2019s Morning News<\/a>\u201d before the home opener against Cleveland. \u201cIt\u2019s finally here, opening day, our 50th season. A sellout crowd on Opening Day is like a celebration, it\u2019s a national holiday.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 41-year Mariners voice, now in his 52nd year in professional baseball and 44th in the majors, acknowledged the weight of beginning his farewell tour, but said he plans to approach it with measured emotion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just going to take it as another opening day,\u201d Rizzs said. \u201cI\u2019ve been thinking about this for the last couple of seasons, and now it\u2019s here, and I\u2019m just going to enjoy every drop of the season. Every play, everything is going to be heightened for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right-hander Logan Gilbert will take the mound as the Opening Day starter for the second consecutive year, a role Rizzs called \u201can honor.\u201d Gilbert dominated in last year\u2019s opener against Oakland, going seven innings in a 4-2 comeback victory.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe retired 21 of 23 batters in the ball game,\u201d Rizzs recalled. \u201cIf Logan Gilbert is anywhere near tonight what he was at opening day last year \u2014 seven innings, didn\u2019t walk anybody, struck out six \u2014 the Mariners are going to be in good shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mariners enter 2026 as consensus World Series favorites, a dramatic shift from the hopeful optimism that has defined previous campaigns. Seattle returns a pitching rotation built almost entirely through the draft \u2014 Gilbert (2018), George Kirby (2019), Emerson Hancock (2021), Bryce Miller (2021), and Bryan Woo (2021) \u2014 supplemented by three-time All-Star Luis Castillo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it says is that Jerry Dipoto and Justin Hollander and the guys in the front office built this team around starting pitching,\u201d Rizzs said. \u201cIt\u2019s the hardest thing to cultivate in Major League Baseball, and the Mariners hit on every guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller will begin the season on the injured list with an oblique strain suffered in spring training, but Hancock is expected to fill the void seamlessly.<\/p>\n

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The front office rebuffed all trade inquiries for its prized arms during the offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said no to everybody that wanted any one of our five starters, because that\u2019s the strength of this team,\u201d Rizzs said. \u201cYou win with starting pitching and great defense, and now you\u2019ve got an offense to go with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Avenging last year\u2019s playoff loss<\/p>\n

The sting of last October\u2019s American League Championship Series loss to Toronto \u2014 Seattle squandered a 2-0 series lead \u2014 still motivates the clubhouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got a bitter taste in their mouth,\u201d Rizzs said. \u201cThey knew they should have gotten to the World Series for the first time. They know there\u2019s unfinished business. They know they have the team to get back there. They know they have a team to win it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The veteran broadcaster drew a distinction between past seasons and present reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about expectations,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are expected to win the division, they are expected to get to the World Series, and everybody in that clubhouse knows it. They embrace it, and they\u2019re ready to go get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the Cheetos superstition that became a clubhouse phenomenon during last year\u2019s late-season surge \u2014 when the team won 17 of 18 games after Dipoto delivered bags of the orange snacks \u2014 Rizzs confirmed the tradition will continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t mess with fate,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

When asked what a championship would mean, Rizzs\u2019s thoughts turned outward.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI want this team to win it for the fans in the Northwest, because the fans are the ones who deserve a World Series champion,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd they\u2019ve got the team to get them there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manda Factor is the host of \u201cSeattle\u2019s Morning News\u201d<\/a> on KIRO Newsradio. Follow Manda on X<\/a> and email her here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally posted to MyNorthwest.com As the Seattle Mariners prepare to open their 50th season Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":683721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[156154,81121,91860,13593,20402,20400,120255,287123,128058,53894,1266,287122,1288,62,8790,67,132,68,25454],"class_list":["post-683720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-american-league-championship-series","tag-bryan-woo","tag-bryce-miller","tag-cleveland","tag-emerson-hancock","tag-george-kirby","tag-home-opener","tag-jerry-dipoto","tag-logan-gilbert","tag-luis-castillo","tag-mlb","tag-rick-rizzs","tag-seattle-mariners","tag-sports","tag-toronto","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-world-series"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116296915744702592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}