Zack Greinke has elevated himself to elite status. He is arguably the favorite to win the AL Cy Young award this year. But before that, he had bouts with social anxiety disorder and depression.You might think that he’s a down-trodden loner. However, it turns out that Zack Greinke is quite the humorist — whether intentional or not.
A recent gem came when the New York press asked Greinke if he wanted to join the Yankees and pitch for them in the playoffs. The Royal’s ace replied, “I don’t want to pitch for New York in the playoffs. I want to pitch for Kansas City in the playoffs.” I don’t think that’s a joke, but it’s still funny.
The first time I heard about him making a humorous comment was around the All-Star Break. Here’s the exchange via KansasCity.com:
And then, there was this exchange when Greinke was asked which NL All-Star he’d most like to face:
Zack: Maybe Chipper Jones. Is he here? I’m not even paying attention.
Reporter: No, he’s not here.
Zack: He’s not even here? Well, he would’ve been my favorite to face, if he was. Why isn’t he, have you heard?
Reporter: Well, the National League third basemen are David Wright and Ryan Zimmerman.
Zack: Is Chipper doing good? Why isn’t he here?
Reporter: He’s having a good year, just maybe not as good as those other guys.
Zack: He should be here. That doesn’t even make any sense. It’s like, I’ll vote Jeter in for the All-Star game the rest of his career, because you have to. He’s Jeter. And I’ll vote Chipper Jones in.
Since he’s the only thing in the Kansas City sports world to get excited about, the Kansas City Star has compiled a Top 10 list of Greinke’s best quotes. Hey, he’s a pretty funny guy. But he’ll probably change his mind on that whole “pitching for the Royals” thing soon enough. Here are a few of Greinke’s witticisms:
“I’d say the average person couldn’t eat a Chipotle burrito and still do his running, full speed, like me. That’s why they call me special.”
“Nice effort by the defense today. They didn’t get tired running after balls. I was pretty impressed by that.”
On making the cover of Sports Illustrated: “It’s a mistake. They’ll probably sell the least amount of magazines in a long time – except when NASCAR was on the cover.”
On meeting President Obama , an avid White Sox fan, at the All-Star Game: “None of the White Sox guys like me. So I was hoping he’d recognize me and be like, ‘You punk, I hate you.’ But he didn’t do that.”
Tags:
baseball,
kansas city royals,
MLB,
quotes,
zack greinke
