From Joe Posnanski's brilliant pen:
I’d say today I threw three or four perfect ones, a couple of pretty good ones, four or five that were terrible, and a couple that were not even good enough to be terrible. So that’s not a very good percentage.
I'm a huge fan of Grienke. He's on my fantasy team, I better be!
I do have to tell one story about Grienke. I was at a Royals game, sitting third base side in the lower deck for a Kansas City, St. Louis game. To my right was my Grandma, diehard Cardinals fan. To my left was my Dad, somewhat less diehard, but still a Cardinals fan nonetheless. I did catch some of the Cardinals fever growing up, but my team was always the Royals. Busch stadium was nice, but the K is the best park in America other than Wrigley in my not so humble opinion.
Anywho, its the first inning and Zack was out there throwing for the Royals during that God awful season where he just failed and flopped and struggled. He loaded the bases for Pujols who came up to bat with everyone at the K, Royals and Cardinals fans alike, I mean everyone, everyone expecting him to just nail the laces out of the ball. Pujols worked the count to 3-2. It was the end for Grienke and it was the first inning. Everyone knew it. Zack then unwound one of his then-famous slower than slow curve balls. Pujols was in the dugout before the catcher caught the ball.
It was the single most exciting thing I've ever see in a baseball game.
And then Grienke proceeded to give up 2 or 3 or 8 more runs or some silly number. Oh well.