Tuesday was a highlight for Kansas City Royals fans, who proudly stand behind Zack Grienke as the AL Cy Young recipient.
While it may seem like we’re light years away from winning a World Series, or even a pennant for that matter, we can at least say we have one legitimate, superstar player.
Greinke doesn’t enjoy being the center of attention and didn’t seem as ecstatic as others when nominated for the Cy Young.
That’s just Greinke’s personality. He’s not being a jerk, he’s just being himself.
I have a lot of respect for him and it doesn’t bother me a bit that he doesn’t enjoy the spotlight.
We could use more players like Greinke in Kansas City. Unfortunately, we’re not the Yankees and we don’t have all the prominent names and faces. This town could use, and deserves, some more names without the bold personalities.
To me, Greinke is a perfect example of how you can demonstrate leadership through your actions, without being the most vocal player on the field.
Baseball is the “thinking man’s game” and Greinke phenomenally portrays this day in and day out on the mound.
He wasn’t always as mentally sound as he is now. He went through a lot to get where he is today, battling through anxiety issues and depression.
While he may have improved physically as a player since he took his time away from baseball a few years back, his new mental edge makes him a Cy Young winner.
While Greinke only pitches once every five games or so, you can see his desire to be on a winning team. Let’s face it, watching the other Royals players isn’t too much fun on a regular basis, whether you’re sitting in the dugout or bleachers. The disappointment is the same.
It’d be a lot more fun for Greinke, and the fans, if we were in the pennant race.
“I don’t want to pitch for New York in the playoffs,” Greinke told the Kansas City Star. “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.”
As a true Royals fan, I was so glad to hear this.
Plus, if we won about half our games or more we’d be a lot more likely to have a shot at keeping key players.
We could have Jermaine Dye, Raul Ibanez, Carlos Beltran and Johnny Damon in our outfield, three of whom have been on World Championship teams within the past five years.
Instead we traded or let them leave Kansas City.
Let’s hope this time we can keep Greinke and develop the franchise player that we’ve been lacking since Mike Sweeney.
However, its not fair to expect Greinke to stick around for 12 years like Tony Gonzalez did with the Chiefs before he moved on. Greinke deserves a playoff-caliber team.
The Royals need to keep developing franchise players like Greinke and Billy Butler and keep them signed. This way, we’re still playing in October instead of looking at the standings column tied for last in the division.
Maybe, just maybe, three years from now when Kansas City hosts the All-Star game in 2012, we’ll have several players representing the Royals, and a team that’s closer to being in mix of the pennant race. By Matthew Gruber