Anthony Rizzo is everywhere — on your screens.
He’s on FanDuel commercials and social-media videos. He’s on the show “The Lovable Reunion” with former Cubs teammate David Ross. And he’s on NBC’s “Sunday Night Baseball” as a studio and in-game analyst.
That’s pretty much what you’d expect from the face of the team that ended the Cubs’ World Series-championship drought at 108 years.
But is Rizzo worthy of all the airtime? Can he turn a successful playing career into a successful broadcasting career?
According to two icons of the industry, he’s well on his way.
“Anthony is as self-critical as anybody who wants to be good at what they do is, but he starts out at a pretty high level,” said Bob Costas, the studio host for “Sunday Night Baseball.” “He’s comfortable. He’s conversive with what’s going on with the game.
“You can sense when the person you are working with is uncomfortable and you have to kind of coax them along. I feel like I can toss almost anything Anthony’s way, and he is going to field it as smoothly as a four-time Gold Glover will.”
“I would add that he’s fearless,” said Jason Benetti, the former White Sox TV voice and current play-by-play voice for “SNB.” “Anthony has a sense of humor that he trusts. He has a sense of analysis that he trusts.
“Anthony and I are not looking at each other. He’s downstairs; I’m upstairs. The analysts are upstairs. And he maybe has talked over two sentences in six games doing this job. That is other-worldly in being that smooth while also being fearless.”
Rizzo will join Benetti, Costas, Roger Clemens and Will Middlebrooks on NBC’s broadcast of Yankees-Red Sox at 6 p.m. Sunday. Rizzo will be on the pregame show with Costas before moving to his “Inside the Pitch” role during the game.
As an “Inside the pitch” analyst, Rizzo is at field level, apart from Benetti and the two booth analysts. The concept borrows from NBC’s “Inside the Glass” when it carried the NHL and “On the Bench” from its first season back on NBA coverage.
“I’m just learning how to announce better, how to be more energetic and be myself at the same time,” Rizzo said. “It’s really unique being so fresh removed and knowing a lot of guys in the clubhouses and getting their intel and just being up to speed with today’s game.”
Rizzo said he gets weekly coaching from Bruce Cornblatt, a longtime MLB Network and NBC Sports coordinating producer who now is an editorial consultant and talent coach for NBC. Rizzo credited Benetti and Costas for their help and marveled at seeing how Costas prepares.
While showing his deep knowledge of the game, Rizzo also can hold his own bantering with the booth.
“There was a game a couple weeks ago where Dan Petry and Mike Bacsik, from the Tigers and the Rangers, were talking about an old friend of theirs that played in the 80s,” Benetti said. “Rizzo jumps in and he goes, ‘You guys know you’re dating yourselves, right? You know you’re being old right now?’ ”
On the Mets-Phillies broadcast last week, Benetti was impressed by Rizzo’s breakdown of erratic Phillies left-hander Jose Alvarado and what he would be thinking in the batter’s box, which is the essence of “Inside the Pitch.” Benetti also appreciated Rizzo’s snark with analysts John Kruk and John Franco.
“He’s got an understanding of people that is well beyond his years,” Benetti said. “I think part of it comes from his journey [as a cancer survivor], but part of it comes from the fact that Anthony is just genuinely a really good teammate, and that is enormous in this enterprise.”
Costas said the challenge for Rizzo eventually will be staying current with baseball as his playing years move further away.
“The greats meet that challenge, the Tim McCarvers and people like that, Tony Kubek, who I worked with back in the day,” Costas said. “Once that direct familiarity fades, then you’ve got to do even more preparation more with the scouts, more with the coaches and the managers and in the clubhouses, which I’m sure that Anthony will do.”
By the sound of it, that is what Rizzo wants to do.
“NBC reached out pretty early on and said they had a lot of interest, and I definitely had interest in getting into this,” he said. “We hit it off.”
Remote patrol
The Score will remain the Bulls’ flagship station as part of a multiyear deal. Chuck Swirsky, analyst Bill Wennington and host Alyssa Bergamini return. For each game, The Score will air a 15-minute pregame show hosted by Swirsky and a 30-minute postgame show with a rotation of hosts.
• Alex Faust, analyst Ryan Spilborghs and reporter Tricia Whitaker will call Cubs-Brewers at 6:45 p.m. Friday on Apple TV.
