By Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune –
CHICAGO — Eric Karros once said every player should spend one year as a Cub to experience the feeling of playing every day at Wrigley Field.
Anthony Rizzo, now in his third organization at the age of 22, hopes to be that rare player who can make Wrigley his home for a long, long time.
(PHOTO: Chicago Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo hits a single against New York Mets’ Dillon Gee in the 1st inning at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois, on Tuesday, June 26, 2012.)
“I’m here to stay,” Rizzo said Tuesday before his Cubs debut. “I’m just going to work hard every day, learn, get better, go through the ups and down of a baseball player, the nicks and bruises, and that’s about it.”
In the most anticipated Wrigley debut in years, Rizzo went 2-for-4 with an RBI double in the Cubs’ 5-3 win over the Mets before an attentive crowd of 34,064.
Rizzo arrived with the burden of being pegged as a franchise-changing player before his first Cubs at-bat, which was not unfamiliar ground for him.
“I was the ‘savior’ last year (in San Diego) too,” he said. “And that’s why I think it’s easier this year to come up. Hopefully this is just a building block of what is to come here in the city and the organization. I think there are a lot of good things to come and hopefully we can look back and this is one of the first steps.”
Rizzo made a fine first impression. He reached on an infield hit in the first that was briefly ruled an error, advanced two runners with a groundout in the third, hustled his way to second on a go-ahead, RBI double in the fourth, and hit a warning-track fly in the seventh.
Cubs fans had been waiting for this day for a couple of months, and Rizzo’s outstanding numbers in the minors simply heightened expectations.
“He’s going to have his ups and down, he’s going to have to make adjustments,” general manager Jed Hoyer said. “All players have to do that. I love the fact that people are excited. To me, it gives hope. You want to have a lot of players like this. Fans love homegrown players more than anything because they relate to them in the minor leagues and they know they can root for them for a long time.”
Sveum inserted Rizzo into the No. 3 hole ahead of Alfonso Soriano, moving Bryan LaHair down to No. 5. Whether Rizzo will stay there is hard to determine after conflicting statements from Sveum and Hoyer.
“I wouldn’t want to goof around with it, no matter if left-handers are out there or not,” Sveum said. “I don’t think it’s something you want to tinker with or change day-to-day, or anything like we’ve had to do with our lineups. … If that’s what we project as our future, there’s no better time than to get him started now.”
Hoyer said he’d “be surprised if he’s etched in stone” in the No. 3 hole.
“I’m sure he’s going to move around in the lineup quite a bit,” he said. “That’s where he’s starting tonight, but he could be anywhere over the next few days.”
No matter where he bats, Rizzo will be scrutinized like no other Cubs prospect since Corey Patterson.
But he has the power and the personality to own this town one day, as long as he can handle the pressure of being “Anthony Rizzo.”
“Pressure comes with any sport, and being in such a big market, it’s even better,” he said. “You have to perform, and that’s what it’s all about.
