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 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, when 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.”
The interviews with players are filmed, and the podcast will be available on YouTube. It’s mostly a weekly show, though two episodes will drop each week at the outset. They’ve already taped several episodes, appropriately starting with Jon Lester, their beer-loving running buddy.
“We get down with these sitdowns, and the guys are ticked off they don’t get to travel around with us and get to hang out with everybody and hear the stories,” Ross said. “And they can’t believe when (it’s over). We’ll do a two-hour session, and the guys want to keep going. It’s amazing how much fun everyone has had doing this.”
Ten years is long enough for Cubs fans to become nostalgic over the 2016 season and short enough for players to still have semi-vivid memories of what exactly happened. The ’16 Cubs weren’t just a great collection of talent but a near-perfect mix of personalities, from stoic Jason Heyward, who delivered the famous rain-delay speech during Game 7 of the World Series, to melodramatic types like John Lackey and Willson Contreras.
Rizzo and Ross were the ringleaders in the clubhouse, while Joe Maddon was the freewheeling manager who gave his players space to be themselves. The result was the end of the franchise’s 108-year championship drought, the longest in North American pro sports history.
A dynasty never was realized, and many eventually left the organization on a sour note. Not everyone’s story had a happy ending in Chicago, despite the 2016 season. Rizzo was dealt by Hoyer in the trade-deadline sell-off in 2021 after failing to agree on a contract extension, and Ross was fired as manager after the 2023 season, after Hoyer had lauded his performance.
But they remain Cubs at heart, and scars heal over time.
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. Heyward, Ben Zobrist, Kyle Hendricks and Aroldis Chapman are among the bigger names on tap waiting to be interviewed, along with former Cubs 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.
Depending on the podcast’s reception, Rizzo said they might extend it to include some media members who covered the team, including broadcasters Len Kasper and Pat Hughes, and celebrities who were around, like Eddie Vedder.
Rizzo, beginning his new gig as a studio analyst for NBC/Peacock telecasts, said he would get Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts on board when he sees him Thursday at the Cubs opener at Wrigley Field. Ross, who returns to an analyst role for ESPN telecasts, said he expects to be at Wrigley for some games this summer.
I asked Ross if there was any topic the two felt was too sensitive to address.
“I think we asked the stuff fans want to know,” he replied. “We asked Joe about different moves in the World Series.”
Like Maddon taking out Hendricks early in Game 7, or Chapman returning to the mound in Game 6 with a seven-run lead?
“He walks through all the plans,” Ross said.
They didn’t spare their friends either.
“We asked Lester why he couldn’t throw to first base,” Ross said with a laugh. “We asked some hard hitters for us. It’s mostly fun, but we definitely ask some tough questions.”
Rizzo noted they weren’t grilling their old teammates and manager in the same manner as beat reporters.
“It’s all in good fun, it’s all celebrated stuff,” he said. “But we ask the questions because that’s what everyone wants to know. And now it’s coming from the horse’s mouth, and not from, uh, Paul Sullivan.”
That was good to know, though I reminded Rizzo and Ross that, like me, they’re both part of the media now, so fans expect to hear the unvarnished truth.
“Yeah, we’re on the dark side now,” Rizzo conceded.
“We’re going to change the narrative, Sully,” Ross added.
Sounds like a plan.
I’m guessing the podcast will be well-received, based on the Cubs’ popularity and the chemistry of the two hosts. And if it works out, maybe they can branch out and produce a general sports podcast like Travis and Jason Kelce’s popular “New Heights.”
Good storytellers are always worth a listen, no matter the subject.
