Zack Greinke Interview

[DHonks]

too bad he missed out on ben sheets...they could be a fun and quirky duo

[pretendastronaut]

I call BS since that is actually possible. I know some Land O' Lakes and American Legions teams that would take him. They're lucky to get 30 fans at their games. If he gives me a million, I'll be happy to set him up.

 

 

But you didn't read what he said. He didn't say he puts up with it so he can play baseball, he said he puts up with it so he can compete against the best baseball players out there.

[danzig6767]

I am not faulting his candidness, but I am faulting his lack of a "filter" of any sorts. These anti-fan quotes will assuredly turn some people off.

Just because a person has a thought in their head, it doesn't necessarily mean they have to say it aloud. I don't think Zack understands and/or doesn't care about that.

I don't know exactly what medication Greinke is on or what exactly his social anxiety symptoms are, but i've known someone for a long time that suffers from social anxiety and has to be medicated. He's the son of my mothers long time good friend, i've known him since we were little kids.

 

When he wasn't on medication, he was kind of a mess. Now that he's on medication, he can function and hold a job, but he's extremely quiet like Geinke is, especially around strangers or people he isn't close to. When people are around him that don't know him like i do, i've had two people ask me what's wrong with him and why is he so odd? I've seen him sit in a chair at gatherings for quite long stretches of time not talking to anyone unless they go up and initiate a conversation. The term "uncomfortable silence" doesn't exist in his mind. Also like Geinke, my friend tends to be very blunt when asked a question and many people aren't used to that kind of honesty.

 

The human brain is very very complex and some folks have disorders. They have to handle them in the best ways they know how so as to try and function well like everyone else. For Greinke, he's blunt in the answering of questions, so be it, especially for a guy with a social anxiety disorder that has a job where he's the center of attention. Attention he doesn't want at all, but has to tolerate.

[nate82]

some of these quotes remind me of Yogi's quotes. Hmmmm Greinkeisms maybe? I don't like the sound of that quick someone think of a better name for his quotes.

[danzig6767]

some of these quotes remind me of Yogi's quotes. Hmmmm Greinkeisms maybe? I don't like the sound of that quick someone think of a better name for his quotes.

I saw this elsewhere of Greinke quotes. If it's already been posted here, feel free for a mod to delete

 

Quotes.

 

"I

could hit me if someone were on base. It wouldn't be easy, but I could

do it. If no one were on base, I wouldn't care as much, so I could get

me out."

 

Upon hearing then-GM Allard Baird was going to watch him throw: "And you're gonna be impressed,"

 

"I'd

say the average person wouldn't eat a Chipotle burrito and still do his

running, full speed, like me. That's why they call me special."

 

"I

was giving Brian Bannister all the credit for being the best-hitting

pitcher on the team, until today. Now, I've got my confidence back.

They're throwing me sliders, and it doesn't matter."

 

"For the

first month of the season, (Billy Butler) has definitely been an

above-average first baseman. That's hard for me to say because I never

thought anyone would say that but him and his family."

 

Two years

ago, with Alex Gordon struggling, Greinke pulled him into the video

room to show him a clip of Greinke hitting his home run. "In case you

forgot," Greinke said, "this is what a home run looks like."

 

"Nice effort by the defense. They didn't get tired of running after balls to the wall. I was pretty impressed by that."

 

To

Jeremy Affeldt after Affeldt gave up a homer on what he thought was a

good pitch. "Really, I went back to the clubhouse and looked at the

pitch on video. It was a really bad pitch. Right over the middle of the

plate, and you got it up. I mean it was a bad pitch."

 

Affeldt: "Thanks, Zack."

 

Zack: "Right down the middle. I could have hit it out."

 

Affeldt: "Thanks, Zack."

 

Zack: "Yeah."

 

On

making the Sports Illustrated cover: "There's a lot more interesting

stuff going on right now. They should have something else on the cover.

Playoff basketball or something else. So it's a mistake. They'll

probably sell their least amount of magazines in a long time -- except

when NASCAR was on the cover."

 

On hoping President Obama would

cuss him out at the All-Star game: "Because none of the White Sox guys

like me. So I was hoping that he'd recognize me and be like, 'You punk,

I hate you.' But he didn't do that."

 

 

“I cried in bed,

moaning ‘why, why did this have to happen?’” — when asked how he

reacted to the news of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston breaking up.

 

“No.

She’s way more big time than me. She’s pretty old too.” — when asked if

he thought Jennifer Aniston would date him after the break-up.

 

“I’d

say the average person wouldn’t eat a Chipotle burrito and still do his

running.. full speed.. like me. That’s why they call me special”

 

“I

don’t know if we really want to talk about this anymore…it’s kind of

stupid” — after talking about golf for about 5 straight minutes in an

interview.

 

“It gives me more time to think or not think, which is a problem.” — when asked what he thought about having an extra day off.

 

Restaurant customer:”Hey, you’re Zack Greinke, right?”

Greinke: looks at him for a second, points at a short, fat Hispanic man next to him, and says, “No. That’s Zack Greinke.”

 

“You

don’t faze me, Gobble.” - From one of his mic’d up segment on RSTN,

when he’s shagging fly balls in the outfield and Gobble runs past right

as he’s about to catch one.

 

“I was looking at colleges for me to

go to, schools in vacation places like Hawaii, just to get away from

everyone I knew, so I could start over. I also thought about mowing

lawns for a living because I like to be outdoors. ” — after breaking

out of the depression funk he said sometimes he thought about quitting

baseball and mowing lawns..

 

"I’m not going pro" — when asked by

a reporter why he had given up the game of golf, even though Greinke

was, by most accounts, the best golfer on the Royals at Spring Training

in 2008

 

“If I lived in Kansas City, I probably wouldn’t go to a

lot of games, but I’d definitely go to that one.” — on a pitching

matchup where Greinke was facing Daisuke Matsuzaka the second or third

game of the year.

 

Reporter: “Hey Zack, would you mind doing an interview before or after your start tomorrow night?”

Zack: “After is better. Uh, what time does the game start?”

Reporter: “I think it starts at 7:10.”

Zack: (With a sly grin across his face) “OK, thanks, now I know.”

 

“Soria,

you runnin’ today? You’re goin’ down then. I’m gonna run so much faster

than you, you’re going to be eating my dust.” — talking to Joakim Soria

during pre-game warmups.

 

“I really want to rob a homer today. Really bad. It’s all up to the hitters.”

 

“No.

Anyone can sign one player.” — when asked if signing Gil Meche to a $55

million deal showed him that the Royals were willing to go out and get

free agents to make this team better.

 

“Well, Davies thinks he’s

good at everything but he’s not really good at anything. He thinks he’s

good at golf. He thinks he’s good at ping-pong. He thinks he’s good at

basketball. He thinks he’s good at tennis. And probably everything else

he thinks he’s good at. He thinks he’s good at cards. But he really is

very average at all of them.” — when asked if he knew any surprising

facts about his teammates

 

“Yesterday I saw a good one. I was

going to eat, and the person I was with wasn’t there yet, so I thought,

okay, I’ll just watch the sun go down, and it was nice.” — when asked

if he had seen any good sunsets in Arizona during Spring Training.

 

“No.

She, like, has a special mouth . . . so that her breath is usually

pretty good, but she complains about mine a lot.” — when asked if his

girlfriend liked to eat at Chipotle with him.

 

“It’s got to help

some other guys, seeing someone as old as he is and playing as long as

he has, playing as hard as he is.” — on second baseman Mark Grudzielanek

 

“Well,

one thing is, when you’re warming up in the bullpen, they’ll spray you

sometimes and get you wet.” — when asked what he thought about the

fountains at Kauffman Stadium

 

“There definitely will be flying

cars, but whether there’ll be flying cars for most people to use, it’ll

probably take a long time to straighten everything out, all the rules

and hassles. It’ll take a while to figure out how to keep people from

crashing into each other.” — when asked if he thought there would be

flying cars in the future.

 

“No, I’m not a fan of them. We could

try to think of someone else we could do it with. But not them.” — when

asked if he and his girlfriend would double date with Tony Romo and

Jessica Simpson.

 

“If I hit a guy, I want him to be hurt.”

 

“Things

can go either really bad in two innings or go really good in two

innings. You really don’t get the whole story.” — on spring training

pitching outings.

 

“I just wanted to make this clear: I can’t

live without baseball…It’s to the point where it caused problems with

my girlfriend because she knows baseball is more important than her. I

say, ‘Hey, I’m sorry. I love the game that much. You’re not even close

to being No. 1 — that’s how much I love baseball. I couldn’t live

without it.”

 

Everybody was mad at me for only throwing fastballs

and change-ups. So I threw some first-pitch strikes with curveballs.

It?s an easy way to get a strike. It?s not like it?s a real hard pitch

to throw. You just throw it for a strike.”

 

“Seriously, that was

the best pitch I’ve ever made that got hit over the fence. That was

probably the only pitch today that I did exactly what I wanted to do.”

— after giving up a home run to Prince Fielder in a spring training

game.

 

“Nice effort by the defense. They didn’t get tired of running after balls to the wall. I was pretty impressed by that.”

 

“Me. I’m a better hitter.” — when Greinke was asked by a National League scout, “Should we draft you or Scott Kazmir?”

[RobDeer 45]

I too am in the camp that it's refreshing to hear his honesty. 99% of players in the three major sports are trained to say exactly what people want to hear. "I'm going to go 110%, I have to thank my teamates and coaches who put me in this position, team is coming together really well, fans are great...... I can go on all day. To actually hear what he's thinking and who he is, is great. Let's not use that against him now. Sure it's in the back of my mind, thinking about his anxiety but I really don't think it will hurt him at all. I'm excited to watch him work this year.

[Invader3K]

I agree with RobDeer. I'd rather hear a guy be honest than just give the standard canned answers we are all used to hearing.

[thebruce44]

I am not faulting his candidness, but I am faulting his lack of a "filter" of any sorts. These anti-fan quotes will assuredly turn some people off.

Just because a person has a thought in their head, it doesn't necessarily mean they have to say it aloud. I don't think Zack understands and/or doesn't care about that.

So you are faulting him for having a chemical imbalance that makes him want to withdraw yet continuing to live his life in the public eye. I am sure you know he has been diagnosed with Social Anxiety disorder and takes meds for it. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if he has some level of Asperger's as well since the two seem to overlap in symptoms.

 

He has been given the gift of the best arm in the last decade while also having something taken from him most of us take for granted. We should be thrilled he gets out of bed every day and choses to use his gift in a Brewer uniform.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I don't care if he's annoyed by fans, as long as he goes out there every 5 days and does his thing.

[topper09er]

I cant wait for Telly to interview him after his first no-hitter this season:

 

TH: Zach, you were able to throw a no-hitter today, how were you able to do that?

ZG: That is same question you ask every player after every game, it is a pretty dumb question.

 

TH: When you got that last grounder ball out to pitch for a perfect game how were you able to do that?

ZG: The last out was a flyout you moron and I walked that guy in the 6th so it wasnt a perfect game.

 

TH: When Brauny made that great catch to save a hit, how was he able to do that?

ZG: That wasnt that great of a catch becuase his first 3 steps were in the wrong direction so he really didnt need to dive. If I was out there I would have caught it without diving.

 

TH: You were also able to hit for a hit tonight, how were you able to do that plus in addition to throwing a no-hitter for a complete game.

ZG: This is getting really dumb now, I dont think I want to do this interview anymore. What, I have to talk with Davey next, my God I need a Chipotle Burrito.

[pitchleague]

Oh, wow. Never thought about Telly trying to interview him. Or Craig. Greinke might lose it.

 

Isn't there a Greinke bobblehead day, too? What if Zach completely loses patience with the fans that want the bobble autographed or something? There had to have been a Greinke bobblehead day when he was with the Royals, right? Oh, wait. I think I read somewhere that Milwaukee is about one of the only places in the majors that still has regular bobblehead days. Almost like Milwaukee is the only place where the fad hasn't died.

 

/soapbox

 

 

On topic, the guy sounds great; a breath of fresh air. I hope he enjoys a lot of success and that fans respect his issues/his disease and don't make him absolutely hate Milwaukee. When I am in Phoenix this summer for the games, if I see him on the field, I will respect his wishes and leave him alone, unless he approaches me.

[Nader Raider Tim]

“That’s how I try to pitch, to keep my FIP as low as possible.” After winning the Cy Young

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/...einke-clubhouse-dynamic/

[bullox]

I would destroy Greinke in World of Warcraft.

[HiAndTight]

So you are faulting him for having a chemical imbalance that makes him want to withdraw yet continuing to live his life in the public eye. I am sure you know he has been diagnosed with Social Anxiety disorder and takes meds for it. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if he has some level of Asperger's as well since the two seem to overlap in symptoms.

 

He has been given the gift of the best arm in the last decade while also having something taken from him most of us take for granted. We should be thrilled he gets out of bed every day and choses to use his gift in a Brewer uniform.

Doesn't the meds he's taking now take care of chemical imbalance?

[Ennder]

I don't have a disorder and I would probably find fans and reporters annoying too. I don't have even the tiniest bit of a problem with this.

[steve267268]

the meds can improve his condition but it's not as simple as flipping a switch. even if you could completely take care of the physical aspect of it there are mental mechanisms that need a lot of time straighten out.

 

also... as an introvert, i find his sense of humor very familiar and very funny.

[thebruce44]

HiAndTight[/b]]

thebruce44[/b]]So you are faulting him for having a chemical imbalance that makes him want to withdraw yet continuing to live his life in the public eye. I am sure you know he has been diagnosed with Social Anxiety disorder and takes meds for it. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if he has some level of Asperger's as well since the two seem to overlap in symptoms.

 

He has been given the gift of the best arm in the last decade while also having something taken from him most of us take for granted. We should be thrilled he gets out of bed every day and choses to use his gift in a Brewer uniform.

Doesn't the meds he's taking now take care of chemical imbalance?

 

No. They help but its a constant battle between controlling the imbalance and side effects. He was interviewed a week or two ago talking about how he tried to up his meds this winter but the side effects were too much to handle.

 

The person I am close with who has ADD and Social Anxiety Disorder hardly eats and will sleep all day if given the oportunity due to the drugs. Without the meds he wouldn't want to leave the house. With them, he can leave but constantly suffers and like Zack, the simple things we take for granted exhaust him by taking a huge amount of effort.