Longtime Seattle Mariners Broadcaster Raises 12th Man Flag For Seattle Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks entered Sunday with one of the biggest regular season games of the year against NFC West rivals, the San Francisco 49ers.

In front of a packed Lumen Field in Seattle, the Seahawks opted to go with one of the most iconic broadcasters in the Emerald City to hoist the 12th Man flag.

Before the game, longtime Mariners play-by-play broadcaster Rick Rizzs lifted the flag to the cheers of the Seattle faithful, many of whom grew up listening to Rizzs' calls just across the street from Lumen at T-Mobile Park.

Rizzs called it a career at the conclusion of the M's season this year after 41 years in the team's booth, which also included when the franchise shared a stadium, the Kingdome, with the Seahawks.

Raising the 12th Man flag is the latest in a series of much-deserved celebrations for Rizzs. In the final weekend of Seattle's season, the team hosted several events. He threw out the first pitch in a game, there was a fireworks show in honor of him and after the team's final game of the season, he addressed the home crowd, players and coaches at T-Mobile Park. Mariners players also offered a tip of the cap to Rizzs for his four decades of service in the booth.

Rizzs, a Chicago-area native, grew up idolizing legendary Chicago Cubs broadcaster Jack Brickhouse and followed in the footsteps of his hero.

Rizzs' broadcaster career began in college with his alma mater, Southern Illinois. He called College World Series baseball games as well as basketball and football games for his university.

After graduation, Rizzs spent five seasons in the minor leagues calling games before briefly taking over as the sports director for the WBNS-AM radio in Columbus, Ohio. He called football games for the Ohio State Buckeyes and minor league games for the Columbus Clippers.

Following Rizzs' stint as sports director at the Ohio-based radio station, Rizzs was brought into the Mariners broadcast booth ahead of the 1983 season by the late National Baseball Hall of Fame broadcaster Dave Niehaus. The former of the two has been in the booth since, aside from a three-season stint in the Detroit Tigers booth from 1992-94.

In his four decades as the M's lead play-by-play man, Rizzs called the careers of some of the most iconic players in team history, including Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr., Ichiro Suzuki, Edgar Martinez and Randy Johnson.

Rizzs will join those players and many more in the team's Hall of Fame when he's inducted in the 2027 season. He'll be one-of-two non-uniformed member of the Seattle Hall of Fame in addition to his former broadcast partner, Niehaus.