Mariners' Year of Rick Rizzs reaches new peak with new radio broadcaster rankings

It feels like Rick Rizzs has been having a moment in 2025. The Seattle Mariners' broadcaster has been all over the news, and he just hit headlines again when Awful Announcing's 2025 radio broadcast rankings came out last week.

The team of Rizzs and Gary Hill, occasionally joined by Ryan Rowland-Smith and Angie Mentink, came in 11th in the voting.

Mariners' beloved radio voice Rick Rizzs is having a heck of a year

“Rizzs is remarkable! A treasure to hear him work,” commented one fan. Another fan called him “Hall of Fame caliber." Still another said “a pro’s pro and deserves to be in the Hall of Fame announcers wing."

The fans have not been the only ones praising Rizzs this year. At his Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Ichiro Suzuki also gave flowers to Rizzs, when he did an impression of the long-time Mariners broadcaster during his speech.

Rizzs has also recently been trending for his comments about his lucky Cheetos.

The story goes that during the Mariners series in Atlanta when the team was struggling, Jerry Dipoto gave Rizzs a bag of Cheetos. It was a callback to a previous season in which Dipoto gave Rizzs a bag of Cheetos and sparked a winning streak for the Mariners.

Apparently, lightning can strike twice. Because just like it happened the first time Rizzs received a bag of cheetos from Dipoto, the Mariners started winning. They won 10 games in a row earlier in September and have lost only once in their last 17 games.

“It’s the lucky Cheetos," said Rizzs. "I’m crediting the Cheetos.”

To make his season even crazier, Rizzs also got hit in the head with a baseball earlier this year. During spring training, Rizzs was hit by a foul ball off the bat of the Milwaukee Brewers' Rhys Hoskins. The ball hit off the back of his head, but he avoided serious injury.

“I turned my head just in time,” Rizzs said.

From his strong rankings on Awful Announcing, to his foul-ball scare, to his lucky Cheetos and Ichiro's impression of him, it sure feels like 2025 has been the Year of Rick Rizzs.