Anthony Rizzo has grown up within the Chicago Cubs organization, embodying what it means to be a captain — official title or not — on and off the field.
On Jan. 6, 2012, then-22-year-old Florida native Anthony Rizzo got a phone call from Theo Epstein. The latter was just months into his new role – in the early stages of building a championship-caliber Chicago Cubs team.
The two, of course, were intimately familiar from their days with the Boston Red Sox. Epstein drafted Rizzo when he headed up Boston’s baseball operations department with a sixth-round pick in 2007.
It was that January when Rizzo was acquired by Epstein. Epstein was just months into the new job to lead the Chicago Cubs where he led his former club, and Rizzo’s former club, the Boston Red Sox, to the World Series.