OK, as promised, here are some more Zacky sound bites from All-Star week:
On whether he dreamed as a kid of being an All-Star:
"This never crossed my mind. The first thing would be making it to the big leagues. That's what you think about all the time. Then it would be hitting like 60 home runs or winning a World Series. That's pretty much all I thought about, hitting all these home runs or batting .400 and then making it to the big leagues and winning a World Series. Nothing else really crossed my mind growing up."
On the attention he's receiving:
"It really bothered me at first. I got used to not having to deal with it, then it was all this stuff, really annoying, but I kind of got used to it and we found a way to get through it. It was more fun than it was a hassle, really, after a while."
On a reporter's long question:
"I didn't listen to the whole question. Sorry."
On the Royals' handling of his off-field issues:
"The Royals stuck with me. I'm glad they did. I probably tried to get traded a couple times back in the day. But they decided to keep me anyway."
On if it's neat being responsible for having such big crowds on the nights he pitches:
"I really don't think that's the case. I really don't. We've been getting a lot of fans compared to what we usually get. I probably pitched three or four times on either Friday night or giveaway nights. They all come for that anyway. That's the main attraction, I think, is when they do giveaway stuff. I don't know why fans think that's so neat, but they do. I guess the Royals do the best giveaways of any place I've seen."
On Roy Halladay:
"There's nobody else like him. He throws 93-mph sinkers and cutters, and he never misses his spot. Nobody else can do that. There are maybe a handful of guys out there who can throw 93-mph sinkers. Maybe. But they can't control it. There's not much else to say. It's really simple for him...It's not even that fun to watch. I mean, you can watch it if you want to. But it's like that every time."
On how much pitching a winter in Puerto Rico when he was younger helped his career:
"None. Sorry. It might've backtracked me because I was so miserable over there. Not the city so much, but I hated playing baseball there. You'd go to the park for eight hours, it was boring. That was my first time playing professional baseball and being at the field that long and not doing anything, it drove me crazy. I might like it now, because I like Puerto Rico a lot, but the baseball here, I didn't like it."
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.
"I didn't listen to the whole question. Sorry."
I don't know how long the question was, but that's what the reporter gets for asking a bad question. Even if it was a good question, making it super long makes it a bad question and I think it's funny that Greinke didn't listen all the way.
Paul L.