MINNEAPOLIS | This seems like a good time for an unfiltered look at Royals pitcher Zack Greinke, and not only because he makes his final start of a magnificent individual season today. It’s his last chance to make an emphatic statement to the 28 members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, who will vote before Tuesday on the American League Cy Young Award. It is that award that generally designates the league’s best pitcher. Greinke, with a 16-8 record and 2.06 earned run average, appears to be the favorite in the regular season’s final weekend. There’s more, though. Greinke proved again this past week that he is a candid enigma whose distaste for individual attention forever clashes with his remarkable self-confidence and an absolute refusal to varnish often-brutal assessments. “The kid won’t lie,” former manager Buddy Bell once said, “even when he should.” Two such examples created headlines in the last week. The first occurred last Sunday at Kauffman Stadium when fans sought to show support for Greinke in his final home start by chanting: “Cy Young! Cy Young! Cy Young!” Asked how he felt about it, Greinke said he found it “annoying.” When club officials sought to quell the stir by saying he meant “distracting,” Greinke torpedoed those efforts by saying, “No, I meant annoying.” Just as that rebuke crested through the media, the Royals found themselves in New York, where Greinke was deluged by interview requests. Normally, Greinke talks to out-of-town reporters only after he pitches, but scheduling quirks resulted in him failing to pitch in either of the Royals-Yankees series this season, so club officials persuaded him to hold a news conference at Yankee Stadium. So there he was Tuesday afternoon, behind the table at the spacious, ultra-modern interview room at the Yankees’ new $1.5 billion palace, with the famous interlocking NY logo as a backdrop. Greinke was asked, more or less, if he ever looked at the Yankees and wondered what it would be like to pitch in the playoffs. “Yeah, definitely,” he said. “But I don’t want to pitch for New York in the playoffs. I want to pitch for Kansas City in the playoffs. It would definitely be a lot better being in the playoffs than not. That’s all you ever play for.” The room quieted for a long pause. Now think about it: Has any Royal said “no” that emphatically to the Yankees — to the very idea of the Yankees and their well-earned glory — since George Brett’s pennant-clinching homer in 1980? So, yes, this seems the right time to sit down with Greinke and just let him talk about his emergence as a dominant pitcher and the possibility of winning the Cy Young, but also about the Royals’ disappointing season and their chances for improvement, along with a handful of other topics. “I like it,” he said recently, “when people quote me saying what I actually said.”You ready for this? I don’t know. I might not be giving good answers today.Then you need to dial it up. Let’s start with this: What’s this year been like? It’s been pretty disappointing for the most part because we haven’t done well. There’s not much to play for besides just doing what you’ve got to do and being a professional and coming ready to play every day.No, I mean personally. What’s the year been like?

Posted on Fri, Oct. 02, 2009 10:49 PM

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For Zack Greinke, a Cy is just a sigh

By BOB DUTTON

The Kansas City Star

Photos | Zack Greinke

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MINNEAPOLIS | This seems like a good time for an unfiltered look at Royals pitcher Zack Greinke, and not only because he makes his final start of a magnificent individual season today.

It’s his last chance to make an emphatic statement to the 28 members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, who will vote before Tuesday on the American League Cy Young Award.

It is that award that generally designates the league’s best pitcher. Greinke, with a 16-8 record and 2.06 earned run average, appears to be the favorite in the regular season’s final weekend.

There’s more, though.

Greinke proved again this past week that he is a candid enigma whose distaste for individual attention forever clashes with his remarkable self-confidence and an absolute refusal to varnish often-brutal assessments.

“The kid won’t lie,” former manager Buddy Bell once said, “even when he should.”

Two such examples created headlines in the last week.

The first occurred last Sunday at Kauffman Stadium when fans sought to show support for Greinke in his final home start by chanting: “Cy Young! Cy Young! Cy Young!”

Asked how he felt about it, Greinke said he found it “annoying.” When club officials sought to quell the stir by saying he meant “distracting,” Greinke torpedoed those efforts by saying, “No, I meant annoying.”

Just as that rebuke crested through the media, the Royals found themselves in New York, where Greinke was deluged by interview requests.

Normally, Greinke talks to out-of-town reporters only after he pitches, but scheduling quirks resulted in him failing to pitch in either of the Royals-Yankees series this season, so club officials persuaded him to hold a news conference at Yankee Stadium.

So there he was Tuesday afternoon, behind the table at the spacious, ultra-modern interview room at the Yankees’ new $1.5 billion palace, with the famous interlocking NY logo as a backdrop. Greinke was asked, more or less, if he ever looked at the Yankees and wondered what it would be like to pitch in the playoffs.

“Yeah, definitely,” he said. “But I don’t want to pitch for New York in the playoffs. I want to pitch for Kansas City in the playoffs. It would definitely be a lot better being in the playoffs than not. That’s all you ever play for.”

The room quieted for a long pause.

Now think about it: Has any Royal said “no” that emphatically to the Yankees — to the very idea of the Yankees and their well-earned glory — since George Brett’s pennant-clinching homer in 1980?

So, yes, this seems the right time to sit down with Greinke and just let him talk about his emergence as a dominant pitcher and the possibility of winning the Cy Young, but also about the Royals’ disappointing season and their chances for improvement, along with a handful of other topics.

“I like it,” he said recently, “when people quote me saying what I actually said.”

You ready for this?

I don’t know. I might not be giving good answers today.

Then you need to dial it up. Let’s start with this: What’s this year been like?

It’s been pretty disappointing for the most part because we haven’t done well. There’s not much to play for besides just doing what you’ve got to do and being a professional and coming ready to play every day.

No, I mean personally. What’s the year been like?

Posted on Fri, Oct. 02, 2009 10:49 PM

Buzz Up

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