<table> </table> The way it works in sports, stars come and go. But every so often, something magical happens. And that sets off a mania. Monday night, Royals pitcher Zack Greinke pitched another masterpiece. Zack Mania is now officially in swing.</p><p>There have been a handful of sports manias in Kansas City the last 30 or so years. George Brett almost hit .400 in 1980. That was crazy. Bo Jackson did preposterous things like run up walls and break bats over his head. He was a national sensation. Joe Montana finished his career here and had enough greatness left to almost take the Chiefs to the Super Bowl. Chiefs running back Priest Holmes scored 27 touchdowns in a season. That was a record.</p><p>Now there is Greinke. Baseball is a game of numbers, and so we can begin with a few of those.</p><p>Kansas City beat the Chicago White Sox 3-0 Monday night. Greinke pitched a shutout, his second shutout in less than a month. He struck out 10 and walked none in a 104-pitch masterpiece. His first pitch was a 90-mph fastball and his last pitch was a 95-mph fastball. He has now won his first six games. His ERA is a preposterous 0.40.</p><p>&#8220;I think that&#8217;s the best performance I&#8217;ve seen in a long time by any major league pitcher,&#8221; Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said.</p><p>It was startling to watch. But there was something even more remarkable than Greinke&#8217;s brilliance. The night was alive. Monday night baseball games in Kansas City&#8217;s springtime have been dead affairs for many years. It only figures. Monday is a school night. Spring evenings in the heartland can be chilly. The Royals have routinely gotten off to sluggish starts (which have, traditionally, transitioned into sluggish middles and then sluggish finishes).</p><p>But Monday night felt like a bit of Kansas City past, going back to the 1970s and 1980s, when the Royals always seemed to win. A crowd of 21,843 may not make people across America gasp, but this was a Monday night in Kansas City, and there were probably 10,000 more people in Kauffman Stadium just because Zack Greinke was pitching. And it was a different kind of crowd, too.</p><p>&#8220;Please welcome your first place Kansas City Royals,&#8221; the public address announcer shouted to begin the day. And everyone cheered. Then Greinke began his slow walk toward the pitcher&#8217;s mound. And everyone cheered a whole lot louder.</p><p>His story is familiar by now, but still stirring. Greinke first pitched for the Royals as a 20-year-old prodigy in 2004. He pitched with startling elegance &#8212; he mixed hard fastballs and ridiculously slow curveballs and nosediving sliders &#8212; and he looked to be a star. The Royals desperately needed a star. They were the worst team in the league in 2004. Greinke was named Royals pitcher of the year, and he was so uninspired he only reluctantly even showed up to pick up his award.</p><p>He endured a nightmarish season in 2005 &#8212; he was terrible, the Royals had their worst season ever &#8212; and Greinke would say that baseball lost all joy. In the spring of 2006, at age 22, he walked away from baseball.</p><p>At the time he was uncertain if he would ever return. He was found to be suffering from social anxiety disorder and depression. He started to take some medication. After a few weeks away, he gingerly returned to baseball.</p><p>Now here it is, three years later, and he&#8217;s pitching about as well as it is possible to pitch. Every time he comes out, it is an event, a happening. That&#8217;s what it was on Monday. A happening.</p><p>Greinke struck out Chicago&#8217;s leadoff hitter, Chris Getz, to start off the game. And right away people in the crowd stomped and shrieked. The last few years, with the Royals losing so often, baseball games at Kauffman Stadium have felt more like picnics. You could sense that most people were there to get the freebie promotion or to catch fireworks after the game or to enjoy the opponent. You could not blame anyone &#8212; that&#8217;s what Royals baseball had become.