Column: There’s no room for sentimentality in baseball, as Anthony Rizzo learned on his final day with Chicago Cubs

Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune
·6 min read

The Chicago Cubs’ sell-off was already well underway by the time Billy Williams was dealt to the Oakland Athletics on Oct. 23, 1974.

Fergie Jenkins had been traded before the season, as had Ron Santo, Glenn Beckert and Randy Hundley, leaving only Williams and Don Kessinger from the 1969 lineup you knew by heart.

Despite spending his entire professional career in the Cubs organization, Williams was philosophical after the deal was announced. He was headed to a great A’s team with a chance to finally win a ring, and the Cubs were ready for a reset after the slow-motion demise from 1969-73.

“Chicago fans gave a day for me, and over the years I’ve come to know many of them personally,” Williams told Tribune columnist David Condon. “They’ve been nice to the family. But the cookie crumbles that way in baseball.”

Some things never change.

The current Cubs’ sell-off really is no different from the one in the early 1970s. Only five years after the 2016 Cubs won the World Series, it’s almost complete.

We came into 2021 having already said our goodbyes to Dexter Fowler, Ben Zobrist, Kyle Schwarber and Jon Lester, not to mention manager Joe Maddon and team President Theo Epstein, two of the most instrumental people of the rebuild. Now we’re saying goodbye to Anthony Rizzo and perhaps Kris Bryant or Javier Báez, marking the end of an era.

Manager David Ross said Thursday, “I don’t look at it like that,” and truthfully he can’t afford to acknowledge reality. Ross is in charge of keeping hope alive for fans in the final two months of a season that the Cubs have punted on. The seats at Wrigley Field may be sold, but that doesn’t mean they will still be filled come September.

Ross was criticized for not letting Rizzo or Bryant get one last ovation in Thursday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley, denying fans their chance for a last goodbye.

Not everyone gets the perfect sendoff like Ross homering in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series in his last game or Ted Williams homering in his final at-bat in Fenway Park in 1960, a moment immortalized in John Updike’s “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu.”

Sammy Sosa’s last game as a Cub in 2004 was memorable only for him leaving in the first inning, an act of petulance that forced the team to dump him in the offseason. Even Billy Williams’ last at-bat at Wrigley in 1973 wasn’t celebrated or even acknowledged by many fans. He had an RBI — a pinch-hit double — in his last at-bat as a Cub on Oct. 1, 1974, at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, then was gone in three weeks.

Perhaps the closest thing to a perfect ending at Wrigley was had by Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood, who announced his retirement before a Cubs-White Sox game on May 19, 2012. Wood struck out the last hitter he faced to end the inning, then walked off to a standing ovation, only to see his 6-year-old son Justin running out from the dugout onto the field.

The two hugged, Wood carried his son off the field and a legendary career was over.

“We don’t all get to choose when, we don’t all get to have a say in it,” Wood said that day. “But I was fortunate enough to play this game a long time and play in a wonderful city in front of the best fans in baseball. It was just time.”

Rizzo didn’t get his Ted Williams/Kerry Wood moment. He spent his final game as a Cub sitting on the bench, seemingly to avoid a potential injury that could’ve thwarted the deal and gone down as another classic “Cubbie Occurrence.”

His final goodbye was on Waveland Avenue, in front of a small crowd of fans who waited to watch him leave the park. Rizzo may not have had an inkling something was in the works and said he was waiting in the Cubs parking lot for his wife, Emily, to give him a ride to O’Hare for the team flight to Washington.

Emily got caught in traffic and was late, and in the meantime team President Jed Hoyer and Ross summoned Rizzo to give him the news of the just-completed trade. Rizzo headed back inside the clubhouse, and the players on the Cubs bus all got off and went back to hear a short and heartfelt farewell speech from Rizzo.

After Rizzo finished talking, he huddled with some of his oldest and closest teammates — including Bryant, Báez and Jake Arrieta — before watching them leave for the airport to catch the flight.

Bryant, Báez and Craig Kimbrel knew they may not be on the Cubs roster by Friday night, especially after seeing the longtime face of the franchise dealt. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.

When the Cubs departed for O’Hare, Rizzo went out on the field with his wife, parents and dog Kevin to get some final photos, including an Instagrammable shot of him falling into the center field ivy. After hanging out on the field with his family, Rizzo declined an interview request from the remaining media at Wrigley before acquiescing.

He spoke for five minutes, showing emotion over leaving the Cubs but also anxious for an opportunity to get back to October with what he called the world’s greatest sports franchise.

“It’s hard for me to talk about it because of the emotions,” he said, hoping to find the right words.

He didn’t have to worry. The look on his face said it all.

Rizzo soon left the near-empty ballpark, only to find dozens of fans waiting outside Wrigley to wish him well in his next chapter with the New York Yankees. That was the only goodbye he needed.

“I just love them,” he said. “It’ll always be nothing but love. From my family to our foundation to everyone, its just been the best 9-10 years of my life here. The memories here will last forever. That’s why I always cherish every moment.

“I leave with no regrets. To you guys in the media ... I can’t thank you enough for the roller coaster you guys have taken us on and we’ve taken you on.”

Rizzo said he’d have more to say when he returned with the Yankees on Aug. 15 for their game against the White Sox, pointing to the off-day in Chicago after the Aug. 13 Field of Dreams game in Dyersville, Iowa.

“We’re here in a couple weeks playing on the South Side,” he said.

By “we,” he meant the Yankees, not the Cubs. That chapter is now over.

We all don’t get to choose when. We don’t all get a chance to have a say in it.

Sometimes it’s over, just like that, and all that’s left are the memories.