Remember how you feel today &#8212; because today, this is great news. Today, the Royals seem to have kicked the dust off their crummy recent past, they have exorcised the ghosts of Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran, Jermaine Dye and all the other big-money players who got away. They signed Zack Greinke to a long-term deal.</p><p>This is a big deal for a lot of reasons, the main one being that Greinke seems to be developing into a terrific young pitcher. He was top 10 in the American League last year in ERA and strikeouts, he threw 200 innings for the first time, and he was pretty much unhittable his last 11 starts (6-3, 2.34 ERA, 69 strikeouts in 69 innings). He&#8217;s 25 years old.</p><p>This is also a big deal because Zack Greinke believes in the future of the Royals. In the past, players have said what, on the surface, sounds like positive words about Kansas City, but not quite. They always say they would be &#8220;willing&#8221; to stay in Kansas City, or they &#8220;have not ruled out&#8221; Kansas City or &#8220;they have enjoyed their time&#8221; in Kansas City. All of which means, &#8220;I&#8217;m out of here as soon as the free-agency papers come in.&#8221;</p><p>Greinke stayed. True, he got paid a lot of money &#8212; he will get $13.5 million each of his last two years, which will probably be a Royals record &#8212; but if he stays healthy and pitches well, he would have gotten that much money anyway, maybe more. He&#8217;s staying because he likes it here, feels loved, and he believes in the team&#8217;s direction, which is nice.</p><p>But, of course, in Kansas City we know that there is another reason to be excited about this. And it&#8217;s simply this: The Royals signed one of their own. Think how many times you have heard or thought this the last 15 years: &#8220;OK, so the Royals got a good player. Big deal. He won&#8217;t be here long.&#8221;</p><p>That became the curse of being a Royals fan; you could root for the team, sure, but you better not fall in love with any of the players. You were never quite sure who would be here tomorrow.</p><p>The Royals broke that curse on Monday. Owner David Glass reached down deep, and the Royals signed Zack Greinke to a four-year deal. They risked $38 million &#8212; and there is genuine risk. Greinke looks so promising, but last year was the first time he even won 10 games in a season (and he still hasn&#8217;t won 15). Greinke looks so promising, but I could name you a bunch of pitchers right off the top of my head who looked hugely promising at 25 but for one reason or another faded &#8212; Mark Prior, Tom Hall, Ismael Valdez, Don Gullett, Steve Avery, Denny McLain, Larry Dierker, Steve Busby, on and on. Some got hurt. Some lost confidence. Great pitching is a delicate thing.</p><p>And the point here is not to say any of that will happen to Greinke &#8212; I love this move, and I think he is about to emerge as a star. No, the point is to say he might not emerge. The point is to say that the Royals took a chance here. Nobody knows what will happen in the next week, much less the next four years.</p><p>I keep hearing people talk about how excited they will be if the Chiefs hire Arizona&#8217;s offensive coordinator Todd Haley as the new head coach. And that might be great. Haley certainly seems like a bright young coach. But I wonder if people will be just as excited about Haley on Monday should the Steelers beat the Cardinals 44-3 and hold Haley&#8217;s Cardinals to 112 yards of total offense.</p><p>Right. When circumstances change, opinions change. I remember a few years ago, when the Cincinnati Bengals made the bold move of trading up to the first overall pick so they could take Penn State running back Ki-Jana Carter. It was a beautiful move &#8212; the Bengals were an absolute joke of a franchise then, they needed something big to happen, and they went out and tried to make their destiny by taking a running back who was universally believed to be a future NFL star. People around football applauded.