Anthony Rizzo and David Ross Have A 12-Part, All-Access, Behind-The-Scenes Special Coming gOut About The 2016 World Championship Chicago Cubs Team, And It Looks Like A Must Watch For All Baseball Fans
Chicago Tribune - Opening day is at hand, and while Jed Hoyer hopes the “next great Cubs team” he began building in 2021 is finally here, fans at Wrigley Field will spend much of 2026 celebrating the last great Cubs team.
A team reunion for the 10-year anniversary of the 2016 World Series championship is scheduled for July 18, and reminders of that special season will be on display from opening day through the end of the summer.
Like the 1985 Bears, the 2016 Cubs will never really go away.
Former Cubs Anthony Rizzo and David Ross, meanwhile, have decided to get the party started early. Rizzo and Ross have teamed up again to produce a new podcast, “The Lovable Reunion,” which begins April 1 on Colin Cowherd’s The Volume network.
Rizzo said the podcast will focus on the 2016 season from the start “through Game 7 and the speech.” And if you don’t know what “the speech” refers to, you’re probably not a Cubs fan and can skip the rest.
While “TLR” is obviously a Cubs-themed podcast, it’s not part of the Cubs marketing department or run by the organization. The two old friends insist they’ll have complete control over the content, guiding us through the 2016 season, where fans wearing “Just One Before I Die” T-shirts got permission to die happy.
“This is us alone,” Rizzo said. “Me and Rossy were talking, and with the 10-year reunion we wanted to do this. Whenever we all get together we just sit down and everyone tells stories. I always wanted to do a podcast after I was playing, and (Ian) Happ tried to always get me to do one while I was playing, but it was too much of a commitment.
“This was like a perfect segue for us to see if we’d like doing it together. We were like, if worst comes to worst, it would still be therapeutic to talk about the whole run in 2016. But we actually love it, so it’s been a fun project.”
Full disclosure upfront- Rizzo and Ross are friends of mine. Nbd. Founding fathers of “The Horn Section” actually. Nbd. Big Cat and I spent a very very long time trying to get Barstool to sign this thing and get a deal done. Couldn’t beat The Volume’s offer though. So they’re going there, they’re gonna crush it, and I’m genuinely thrilled for them. Not even a little bitter. It’s all fine. Totally fine.
Now let me tell you why this podcast is going to be one of the best things to happen to baseball media in years.
The obvious pitch is that it’s Cubs fan porn.
A 10-year retrospective on the team that ended a 108-year curse, hosted by the two guys who were the heartbeat of that clubhouse, interviewing basically everyone who was there. Rizzo, Ross, Lester, Schwarber, Arrieta, Maddon, Zobrist, Heyward, Lackey, Chapman, Theo Epstein, and Eddie Vedder (of course).
But here’s the thing that non-Cubs fans need to understand- this isn’t just for Chicago.
This is a genuine behind-the-curtain look at one of the most pressure-cookerr championship runs in the history of North American sports.
And it’s coming straight from the players’ mouths, with zero network oversight, zero team PR involvement, zero anyone telling these guys what they can and can’t say.
Rizzo was explicit about it. “This is us alone.”
So theres no guardrails. No handler in the corner making the slow-down gesture or saying “we’ll need to edit that out”.
I’ve gotten the opportunity to see a lot of the raw footage as they’ve been taping it, and I’m telling you- it’s really fucking awesome.
Just from a pure baseball perspective.
So what can we expect to hear? Will it be a G-rated podcast?
“Most of them are PG-13,” Rizzo said. “Some are rated R. But it’s really just candid talk, just us talking and cameras there. You wouldn’t even think it’s (a podcast). Once we get into an episode, it’s a lot of full-circle moments and a lot of stories from guys, like Mike Montgomery talking about growing up and some of the pitches he threw, and being in the World Series closing out Game 7.
“There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that was eye-opening even for me and Rossy, and a lot of stuff people have heard about, but now it’s coming from our mouths.”
No one has turned down a request to be interviewed, and many episodes are already completed. Jason Heyward, Ben Zobrist, Kyle Hendricks and Aroldis Chapman are among the bigger names on tap and waiting to be interviewed, along with former president Theo Epstein.
Many guests have their own episodes, including Maddon, Lackey, Addison Russell, Kyle Schwarber and Jake Arrieta. Others are in groups — coaches Eric Hinske and John Mallee; pitcher Travis Wood and coach Mike Borzello; outfielders Chris Coghlan, Matt Szczur and Albert Almora Jr.
(Sidebar- has Paul Sullivan gotten nicer in his old age? Honest question. Kind of seems it by his writing lately. Hints of the Grinch's heart growing 3x)
Giphy Images.What makes it work isn’t just the big names. It’s the guys we might have forgot about.
Mike Montgomery might be the runaway interview of the entire series, and if you know anything about that 2016 team you know exactly why that conversation is going to be devastating in the best possible way.
Travis Wood, and Coaches Eric Hinske and John Mallee. Down to role players who were standing in the middle of history and knew it and couldn’t do anything but try not to throw up. The guys who don’t usually get the mic. That’s where this thing really goes from good to great.
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And then there’s Maddon.
Joe Maddon has been out of baseball for a while now. Just living his life, sitting with ten years of perspective on the most chaotic, pressure-soaked World Series in modern memory. The back and forth. The blown leads.
Chapman on fumes in Game 6 with a seven-run lead.
Taking Hendricks out in Game 7. Taking Lester out when he was cruising. All of it is in this.
He’s had a decade to lament and reflect on every single decision, and now he’s going on record with two guys who were in the middle of all of it. That episode alone is worth the subscription.
The pressure angle of it all is what gets me most.
When you hear these guys talk about what it actually felt like, it hits different.
Rizzo had been in Chicago for years. He knew.
He knew millions of people- generations of people who had waited their whole lives and watched their parents and grandparents wait- were depending on them.
That weight is incomprehensible.
And then you have a guy like Schwarber, who showed up on one leg after tearing his ACL in April, who barely knew the city yet, and even he understood what was happening and the gravity of it all.
(Sidebar- hearing these guys all talk about what wa showing through their heads when Ramirez went yard is laugh out loud funny)
Ross, by the way, is a Swiss Army knife at this point in his career. Playing career, manager, ESPN analyst, Dancing With The Stars Champion, Team USA WBC bullpen coach, and now podcast host alongside a new ESPN deal. The man has more phases than the moon. And every single one of them he’s crushed. I have zero doubt this is next.
Tonight baseball starts back up, and Rizzo is going to be on the call for Netflix.
I keep asking him if he’s nervous. He keeps telling me no, that it’s easy and fun and he’s looking forward to it.
He’s gonna be great. Like really great.
For Netflix and then NBC all year.
The guy was born to talk baseball in front of a camera, same as he was born to hit leadoff and pitch relief at Wrigley.
Good week to be Anthony Rizzo. Great week for the horn section. Even better week to be a baseball fan.
The Lovable Reunion drops April 1st on The Volume.
p.s.- I think the real reason Gaz wanted to pass on this wasn’t because “baseball is dying”, but because Ross and Rizzo aren’t hot enough. To each their own I guess.