The voice of Seattle baseball is stepping away from the mic.
Rick Rizzs, who has called Mariners games for 40 of his 51 professional seasons, announced Tuesday that 2026 will be his final year in the broadcast booth. He’ll handle all home games next season with a reduced road schedule, though he made clear he plans to stick around if Seattle makes a postseason run.
“I can’t thank them enough for the love and support they’ve given me all these years, but the reality is that the time has come for me to step back and spend more time at home with my grandkids,” Rizzs said in the team’s announcement.
The Mariners hired Rizzs in 1983 to work alongside Dave Niehaus, who was already nine years into what would become a 34-year Hall of Fame broadcasting career. That partnership ran through 1991, when Rizzs left for Detroit to replace another Hall of Famer, Ernie Harwell, as the Tigers’ lead voice.
The Detroit stint didn’t last. The Tigers fired both Rizzs and his partner Bob Rathbun after the 1994 season, and Rizzs returned to Seattle just in time for 1995.
That turned out to be excellent timing.
He’s been there ever since, working alongside Niehaus until the Hall of Famer’s death in November 2010. Rizzs took over as the lead voice and worked with rotating guest commentators before Aaron Goldsmith joined the booth full-time in 2013. That partnership lasted through the end of last season, when the Mariners moved Goldsmith to TV and brought Gary Hill Jr. into the radio booth.
So many unforgettable calls… which Rick Rizzs call is your favorite? pic.twitter.com/BXBbR2lPp2
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) January 27, 2026
Whether Hill becomes the lead voice in 2027 or the Mariners bring in someone from outside remains unclear, but the groundwork has been laid either way for someone else to call Mariners games starting in 2027. Rizzs will spend his time watching his grandkids grow up, doing charity work, and presumably listening to the radio when the Mariners play. After 51 seasons, he’s earned that right. After 40 years with one organization, the Mariners owe him a proper sendoff. The 2026 season will provide that, and then both sides can move on to whatever comes next.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.