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We knew the end of an era – perhaps the most important era in Cubs history – was imminent long before this week even began.
And specifically, we’ve known for weeks that Bryzzo was heading into the same painful split that befell Bennifer, Brangelina, and Kimye before them.
But when the Cubs traded Anthony Rizzo to the Yankees on Thursday, it made franchise history shudder.
The first centerpiece on the list that would win the baseball holy grail championship – the man who caught the pitch for the 2016 title final and became so beloved in Chicago that they named a cereal for the little one – lunch after him – could be the most important player the franchise has ever traded.
At least for a few hours, until they swapped Bryzzo’s partner Kris Bryant – who took a moment of personal silence in the dugout after Thursday’s game to contemplate Wrigley Field and soak up what was almost certainly his last moment in the stadium as a Cub.
“Bryant and Rizzo are my favorites and seeing them go their separate ways or leave, it just won’t be the same,” said Jeff Osterberg, who came from Belvidere to take his granddaughter, Miah, to his first game of the Cubs Thursday – only to find out that Bryant and Rizzo weren’t in the lineup.
“It’s Bryzzo, you know?” Osterberg said. “It just won’t be the same. “
Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio was the most famous business in Cubs history, but only after Brock became an established player and star in St. Louis. He didn’t have the opportunity in Chicago for anyone to care much about it at the time.
And while Sammy Sosa may have been the greatest star the Cubs have ever traded while still at the peak of his glory, his star had dropped considerably by the time they dumped him on the Orioles after a 2004 season. which ended with an early departure from the final. match and a falling out with the team.
The day Rizzo was traded in a move that shocked and rocked the Chicago baseball world – if only because it happened with little warning and before Bryant or Craig Kimbrel was traded – jerseys from Javy Báez, Bryant and especially Rizzo seemed more plentiful than usual in the Wrigley Field seating sections.
Maybe that’s because Thursday’s game against the Reds was the Cubs’ last home game before Friday’s 3 p.m. deadline.
“Almost every shirt you look at is ‘Rizzo’, ‘Rizzo’,” said Lou Indovina, from the North Side, who went Thursday with his wife, Janet, and their daughter and grandchildren.
“It’s sad.”
The lifelong Cubs fan who remembers the Ernie Banks-Billy Williams-Ron Santo Cubs as fondly as the Ryne Sandberg-Rick Sutcliffe-Jody Davis era, seems to have little tolerance for breaking that core.
“It’s like when I was watching the Bulls,” Indovina said. “When Jordan and the others left, I stopped watching basketball.”
Rizzo is not Michael Jordan. And whatever happens to this club, a lot of fans will probably keep watching.
But that dismantled kernel probably won’t be forgotten either.
Perhaps less than anything Rizzo, the definitive core member, who in nearly a decade with the club has climbed many of his career statistical charts, won three All-Star caps and four Golden Gloves, has impacted the lives of countless children and families through her work for pediatric cancer patients, rarely stopped smiling or acting like the biggest kid on the court while playing the children’s game for which they actually paid him off, and who in 2020 has become the kind of club leader he and the squad officials have long envisioned.
Acquired by the San Diego Cubs in the third trade from Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer after taking over the baseball operations department in the winter of 2011-12, Rizzo – who had fought cancer as a minor league in the Red System Epstein and Hoyer Sox – Signed a seven-year contract before playing a full season in the majors and becoming the left-handed slugger the Cubs built their roster around.
His signing moments since then have included taking all of the Reds’ dugout canoe to Cincinnati in a game in late 2014 that many members of the organization see as the symbolic and competitive turning point in six successful years that have followed.
In late September 2019, he returned from a four-week-in-four-day ankle injury to limp on the pitch as a late addition to the roster and home run against the Cardinals in an effort to help the Cubs in their last push to qualify for the playoffs. .
And in his last homestand as a Cub, he went 8 for 22 (.364) with three home runs and a 1,280 OPS in six games, then stayed and walked the expanse of the stadium with his parents, wife and son. dog Kevin a. last time – while Bryant and other former teammates headed to the airport for the next road trip.
“This city will be in my heart for the rest of my life,” said Rizzo, just before being cheered one last time by the dozens of fans who remained outside the park when he left on Thursday.
Jon Lester and Kyle Schwarber left during the offseason. John Lackey, Miguel Montero, Dexter Fowler and other key members of the Championship before them. Jake Arrieta is gone and is back. David Ross retired and returned as a manager.
But Rizzo? He even said in his last days as a Cub that he had the hope of being a Cub for life. Even at 31, it briefly seemed possible as he and the club talked about an overtime at some point this year.
But sources say the Cubs consider it a final divorce, with no plans to revisit talks when Rizzo becomes a free agent.
If watching the Cubs trade the franchise face on Thursday seemed disorienting, let this one sink in.
For what it’s worth, Bryant seems to know it will be the same with him. Báez can stay until the deadline, but the clock will start his final days again until free agency in October – unless the Cubs can get an extension with him.
Whatever next step for this club, whatever “not a rebuild” the Cubs claim to be sailing, whatever the next core, it all started unequivocally on Thursday.
With the end of an era. With an ending that seemed strangely sudden for all the warnings and advice we got that this was going to happen. With an end that still has a few hours before the Friday deadline.
“These guys shaped it [competitive] culture here, ”said teammate Ian Happ, who made his 2017 debut in the Cubs title defense. “It’s pretty special, and no matter what happens this year, how the next few days, or the year, will end, the impact each of these guys has had can’t be overstated.”
“Forever Chicago legends no matter what,” said Josie Gery.
Gery, 18, attended Thursday’s game with his older brother Dominic and younger brother Anthony in hopes of taking one last look at their favorite players – each wearing a different jersey from the big three basics.
“These are the baseball players that we will tell our kids about,” said Anthony, who wore a Rizzo jersey.
“In the same way my mom always talked about Ryne Sandberg,” Josie said, “these will be our people.”
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