Zack Greinke’s emergence last year on top of his impressive start to the season this year has caused him to receive plenty of attention nationally. As is the way of the day, people can’t just settle for a player dominating his sport — that’s not good enough. Oh no, the media needs a story to grasp onto, milk, and suck dry until the point that it’s no longer enjoyable to hear about that player’s accomplishments. I heard from fans during college basketball season who said that Stephen Curry was one of the most enjoyable players to watch last year during the tournament but the media overdid it so much this year that it was no longer fun to watch him. I said as much about Josh Hamilton last year — I really was on board with what he was doing but the media went into overkill and ruined it. I think we’re already hitting that point with Zack Greinke.
In case you’ve missed it, Greinke is 6-0 this year with three complete games and two shutouts in six starts. He’s only allowed three runs (two earned) in 45 freaking innings pitched. He’s allowed just 38 men to reach base which is almost absurdly dominating. The guy’s been awesome and he’s been a huge reason why the Royals are leading the AL Central. Now rightfully so, he’s already received attention and due by Sports Illustrated who put him on the cover and gave him a nice featured article. Since adding KC-based writer Joe Posnanski to their staff, they’ve been on top of all major stories in the midwest-area so it’s no surprise they were first on the national scene to pounce on the Greinke story.
Posnanski’s feature centered on the year off of baseball Greinke took when he was going through social anxiety issues and how Zack’s fighting to overcome the issue. Articles on other sites began highlighting this story and now it seems like all references to him include some words about “what he’s overcome.” Even trying to watch him on the ESPNEWS highlights following his most recent outing I had to hear about his social anxiety story. And this was in a highlight show where all I wanted to see was how he pitched, not hear the background story! I’m just saying that the better he does and the longer this goes on, the worse the coverage is going to get. I really hope the media doesn’t spoil the enjoyment of simply watching a pitcher dominate. That’s all I really want to do — just watch Zack Greinke kick some ass with his 97mph fastball and not have to be reminded every single time he pitches about “how much he’s overcome.” Is that too much to ask?
