Bryant, Rizzo on fame, guns and the game
Cubs icons talk with Bob Nightengale about their shared past and present
They are the Millennial version of Ernie Banks and Billy Williams, the bookend faces of the Cubs.
Anthony Rizzo, 28, and Kris Bryant, 26, not only represent a franchise that is reveling in its greatest run of success in 110 years, but they also have become Major League Baseball’s ultimate role models, epitomizing much that is right about the game, on and off the field.
Rizzo, a three-time All-Star and World Series champion, earned baseball’s top humanitarian honor last year when he was recipient of the Roberto Clemente Award. He left spring training camp last month to speak at a prayer vigil for the 17 students killed at his alma mater, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Bryant, a two-time All-Star and World Series champion, became the first to win the collegiate Golden Spikes, Minor League Player of the Year, National League Rookie of the Year and NL MVP awards in four successive years.
They will forever be linked to 2016, leading the Cubs to their first World Se-
ries title in 108 years, and are expected to be teammates through at least 2021, when each is eligible for free agency.
The Chicago icons sat down with USA TODAY as they broke camp in Mesa, Ariz., to discuss everything from mass murders in their hometowns, their greatest day off the field, the cruelty of social media, Bryce Harper and a sobering opening day.
Q: Did you two ever meet in San Diego when Bryant was playing at the University of San Diego and Rizzo was with the San Diego Padres?
Rizzo: “He knew me.”
Bryant: “I didn’t know him.” Rizzo: “He came to see me play.” Bryant: “He was a struggling prospect.”
Rizzo: “He was sitting in the nosebleeds and saw me play.”
Bryant: “OK, there was a $5 college night. I think it was on a Tuesday, and they put us all the way up in the rightfield deck, but I don’t remember seeing him play at all.”
Rizzo: “That’s what he says.” Bryant: “Were you on the team that night when Carlos Quentin charged (Zack) Greinke?”
Rizzo: “I was on it that year.” Bryant: “Well, I was at that game. I think we first met when I got drafted and took batting practice.”
Q: You hit it off right away?
Rizzo: “No, I told him to buy the spread (dinner) in 2013.”
Bryant: “He had long curly hair, and I was a scared guy who just got drafted. He knew I was a first-round pick. And he says, ‘Oh, you’re buying the spread today.’ I didn’t know what to say.”
Q: You ever joke with Bryant that the game shouldn’t be this easy with all of his honors and World Series title so early in his career?
Rizzo: “No, someone said that to me one time, ‘Try to make the game harder.’ I didn’t like it. It stuck with me forever. So I didn’t say anything even after Golden Spikes, the Minor League Player of the Year, the Rookie of the Year, World Series, MVP, but nothing last year.”
Bryant (who batted .295 with 29 home runs and a .946 OPS in 2017): “I sucked last year. It was such a letdown.”
Rizzo: “Kris is very humble. It’s pretty cool. To have all of that success, and Kris doesn’t think he’s better than one single person here, whether you’re (Cubs owner) Mr. (Tom) Ricketts or the Dominican summer league coach.”
Q: Do you feel a responsibility to have an impact in the community as much as on the field?
Bryant: “I don’t do nearly as much as he does. Baseball is great and all, but we have such a platform that we can use and reach a lot of people, and he certainly does that. He raises a lot of money for people who need it, cancer patients, kids, hospital visits. It really makes all of the stuff on the field seem like peanuts compared to what he does off the field.”
Rizzo: “For sure, that’s how I was raised. Sometimes athletes don’t give ourselves the best names, but being able to put this uniform on gives us a platform to put on a smile and help out families. I love playing baseball. I give it my all. But to be able to go out and put life in perspective and make someone smile is way more important than what goes on in the field.”
Q: How difficult was it for you guys emotionally with the massacres that left 58 dead at a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip and 17 students and teachers killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School?
Bryant: “You see other things happening in the world, but when it’s close to home, it hits you. There’s a lot of crazy stuff in our country and around the world. And when it’s close to you, or our hometown, with people you know, you really open your eyes to it. It’s just so gut-wrenching.”
Rizzo: “The sad thing is that we’re all numb to it. You hear school shooting. You hear bombers. You hear all sorts of things. You keep going on with your day because we’re so numb to it until it’s something huge and everybody starts paying attention to it. Things are happening all of the time, but we’re just so numb to it until it hits our hometown or your backyard like it did for Kris and my- self. It’s crazy. What is going on?”
Q: Would you like to see new gun control legislation?
Rizzo: “I would like to see people start becoming more accountable and start answering more questions. These kids are growing up in a generation with all of these school shootings. You have 11year-olds speaking at rallies. Elevenyear olds! I’m sitting on my couch in tears thinking that these kids should be at a soccer game. It’s Saturday. Or dance. Or playing a sport. Or doing whatever they love. Instead they’re at a rally trying to change a lot of lives and change this nation. It’s crazy.”
Bryant: “I just want to see people be good people. That’s what it boils down to. Raising your kids right. There is so much that needs to change. Kids are bullying each other, and that affects you later on in your life. I believe in people and how good we can be. It’s not hard to be a good person. You don’t even have to try. But it just seems like it keeps getting worse. There are a lot, lot, lot of bad people out there.”
Q: You wish you could have played in a different era without social media when players seemed to have more fun and less public scrutiny?
Rizzo: “It’s so different now. I still have a ton of fun playing, on and off the field. But in this era of social media and camera phones, it’s just the way the world is now.”
Bryant: “I think that would be the best part of playing in a different era, not having social media. Then, it was just all about winning. You didn’t care about exit velo, spin rate, hitting in this situation, all of these stupid numbers that are out there. It was just about winning.
“The biggest thing now is that everybody has an opinion. You’re scrutinized so much for things that you do on the field when all you’re doing is trying to win and help your team out. I know when the season starts for me, I take Twitter off my phone because there’s a lot of negative stuff out there and I don’t like to see that.”
Rizzo: “Obviously, I have my foundation (Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation) on social media. I love it. I’m big on it. At the same time, if you you read all of the comments and let it affect you, it’s not good for you. I think you have to balance it because we are athletes. We can have a platform and do so much to reach people. You know, people look up to us. They look up to me. They look up to Kris. And they’re looking to see how we’re doing, and how we’re doing it. And coming to a game in August, when we’re tired, but they have had tickets since Christmas. That one game they come see the guys. I think if you let it bother you and read all of the comments, that’s one of the biggest problems are all of these bul- lies on social media. They see you face to face and they love you, but behind a computer, they like to make it seem like you’re less than a person.
“There are so many stats and numbers that people talk about. I’m sure they were around back then, but they just weren’t in your face all of the time. You walk into a big-league clubhouse, you have SportsCenter on. You have MLB Network on. Who’s hot? Who’s not? Why he’s doing good? Why he’s doing bad? Why he can’t hit this pitch? It’s almost like overloaded, and I stay away from it.”
Q: Coolest moment together off the field?
Bryant: “We had a really cool golf trip. We went to Pebble Beach in 2016. We landed in San Francisco and had an off day. Jon Lester got us a plane and paid for everyone to stay at Pebble Beach. We flew over there, had a cool night, played a round the next day and came right back to San Francisco. I don’t know if we can ever top that trip during the season.”
Q: How enjoyable is it seeing this organization evolve from being lovable losers to one that has been to the NLCS three consecutive years with a pennant and a World Series title?
Rizzo: “It’s really cool to see this whole thing come together. You see Cubs fans go from losing, losing, losing to winning, winning, winning. And now they’re calling on (2018-19 free agent) Bryce Harper to turn our organization around. I tell them, ‘If you’re counting on Bryce to turn us around, you’ve got real issues.’ We’re really good right now. He would help us, but if that’s who you’re banking on, that’s when you know we’re in a really good spot right now.”
Q: Now that you’ve been together for three full seasons, you think you’ll be friends for life?
Bryant: “For sure.”
Rizzo: “I think so, because I think we’ll play together a long time. You never know, but that 2016 team will forever have that bond.”
Q: How emotional will opening day be in Miami on Thursday (the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School baseball team will be part of a pregame ceremony, along with four victims’ families hosted by Rizzo)?
Rizzo: “It will be very special, very emotional. Obviously, everyone is still healing. The community is very outspoken, but it really makes a difference with the victim’s families there. It will be nice to just chip in and help out a little bit, bring them down on the field, and make them feel good. Their baseball team is ranked in the top five in the nation. They know how to win. Hopefully they can help us, too.”