Royals glad Greinke returned

He could be the face of the franchise, if he wanted to be. He does not, but his talent is so extraordinary he might have to be.

“I just don’t like attention,” Zack Greinke said.

This is not about modesty. This is about coping with a social disorder, about walking away from a dream, about emerging as the best pitcher in baseball and the player to whom fans can most easily relate.

You probably can’t hit a 95-mph fastball, or throw one. But you might well have struggled to find peace in your everyday life, joy in your career, comfort among your colleagues.

Greinke struggled with all three. He walked away from the Kansas City Royals, from the bright lights and the millions of dollars, in order to find happiness, or at least contentment.

He could be one of us. He is one of us.

He surely has inspired some fans to follow their hearts, not that those fans have told him that, in letters or in person.

“I’m surprised at how few people actually tell me stuff like that,” he said. “It’s been less than 10 people.

“It’s really shocking to me.”

Not that shocking, perhaps, given the sense that exuberance among strangers does not come easily to him.

“No, it’s really nice to hear that,” Greinke said. “That’s the one thing I don’t mind hearing.”

Greinke was the new kid in town when George Brett, the greatest player in the history of the Royals, invited him over for dinner. Bret Saberhagen, the most decorated pitcher in franchise history, was invited too.

The way Saberhagen tells the story, Greinke listened politely to his elders. There was not a twinkle in his eye, not until he got to play video games with Brett’s young children.

“He loved the baseball,” Saberhagen said. “He didn’t like the notoriety that went along with it. Normally, everybody wants fame and fortune, and sometimes they forget about the work it takes to be successful. He was just the opposite.”

And then he started to dread the work. He was 22. He wanted to quit pitching entirely, to pick up a bat and play every day.

“You wouldn’t be playing every fifth day,” then-coach Bob Schaefer said he told Greinke. “You’d be playing every 10th day.”

He decided he would not play at all. This was 2006, four years after the Royals selected him in the first round of the draft, two years after his major league debut.

He left. His bosses supported him, told him to take all the time off he needed, not sure if he would ever come back.

“I couldn’t say I was 100% sure he would,” pitching coach Bob McClure said.

Greinke came back in June, with his fastball but also with a diagnosis of social anxiety disorder, and with medication that helped put him at ease.

The Royals eased him back into baseball -- in the minor leagues for the balance of that year, in the bullpen the next year, back into the starting rotation last year.

He had as many quality starts as Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee. He finished 10th in the American League in earned-run average at 3.47, including 2.33 in his final 10 starts.

He lost to the Angels on Saturday, 1-0, his first loss of the season. He gave up one earned run; his ERA rose to 0.51.

He completed his fourth game in five starts. This is just about unheard of. Cole Hamels has four complete games in his career. Greinke has seven in his career. Johan Santana has nine.

Greinke gives hitters fits by changing speeds better than anyone in baseball, mixing a fastball, slider and curve, adding some oomph here, easing up just a touch there.

On Saturday, he hit every speed between 71 mph and 97 mph, with the exceptions of 77 and 79. Good luck timing that guy.

In Kansas City, they’re already lining up to witness this show of greatness. In his last home start, the Royals sold more than 6,500 walk-up tickets -- that is, one of three customers apparently came just to see him.

He is the hottest young pitcher in town since Saberhagen won the Cy Young in 1985, the year the Royals won the World Series.

They haven’t returned to the playoffs since then.

“It’s fun to watch the fans and the city get excited about something,” said Frank White, the Royals’ greatest second baseman.

“If our team had been winning all of these years, it might be different. When you’re trying to get yourself righted, and he’s just really come into his own, it’s created a buzz.”

Saberhagen lives in Southern California now, working with West Coast Sports Management. He plans to drop by Angel Stadium today, to wish Greinke him the best.

If Greinke ’09 can match Saberhagen ’85 -- a Cy Young Award for the young ace, and a World Series for Kansas City -- that would be the best story in baseball.

“Everybody loves a great story,” Saberhagen said.

After a week dominated by Manny Ramirez, we couldn’t agree more.

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bill.shaikin@latimes.com