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Before I share the excerpt from Verducci’s book, let me first set the scene.
The date was Sunday, October 30th and the Cubs were preparing for Game 5 of the World Series at Wrigley Field. The team was facing a seemingly insurmountable task of digging themselves out of a 3-1 hole after dropping the last two games to the Cleveland Indians. With their back against the wall, Anthony Rizzo turned to one of the most inspirational fiction characters in our lifetime — Rocky Balboa.
The entire day leading up to the 7:15 p.m. first pitch, Rizzo was showing all 213 Rocky movies and blasting the famous theme, “Eye of the Tiger.” I actually wrote about this after the Cubs won Game 5, 3-2.
What was conveniently left out at the time was the fact that Rizzo did this butt ass naked before Game 5 and since it helped get the Cubs a Game 5 win, why not do it before Game 6 and Game 7?
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An hour before the seventh game of the World Series, Rizzo stripped off all his clothes, cranked the theme from Rocky on the clubhouse stereo one more time, jumped on top of a coffee table, and began quoting lines from the movie and throwing his best shadow-boxing punches. Pitcher Hector Rondon, joining in on the hijinks, picked up an aerosol can of shoe cleaner and sprayed it in the direction of Rizzo’s groin.
Startled and angered, Rizzo stopped and yelled, “What the heck, man!” He cut the music and stormed off toward the showers to clean off the spray. “I’m thinking, Dang, what’s he doing?” Ross said. “We can’t have this negative vibe right before the game. I go by there. I can tell he’s a little irritated.”
Ten minutes went by. Rizzo finally emerged from the shower. He walked back silently to his locker with a towel around this waist. The room was quiet and uneasy.
Ross walked up to Rizzo and broke the silence.
“Hey! It’s not how many times you get knocked down … it’s how many times you get up!”
Rizzo chuckled. “You know what?” he said. “You’re right!” Said Ross, “He rips the towel off, runs up, turns the music on again, and he jumps back on the coffee table and starts doing the Rocky motions again.”
I don’t know if I would have approved of this at the time but I’m sure as shit glad that Rizzo decided to weird out at just the right time.
