"Zack Greinke is here, a half-hour or so away from his old teammates, and he sometimes thinks about going back. A dozen or so reporters just finished with their questions but Greinke stays in his chair because he sees a familiar face from those old days.

"Man," he begins, "That was just a lot more than Kansas City ever had."

Greinke wears his hair a bit longer and lighter now, and his paychecks come from the Brewers after nine years in the Royals' organization. There's a different name on the front of his jersey and a different number on the back of it — he switched from 23 to 13 — but the rest is exactly the same.

This is still the thoughtful, funny, monotone, and completely unfiltered pitching prodigy that people back in Kansas City fell in love with.

He forced his way off of the Royals, of course, and he's still not entirely comfortable with how everything happened. The losing wore him down. He wanted out, needed out, and even says he actively tried to tick off Royals fans to make it easier for the club to trade him. More on that in a minute.

But Kansas City is still inside of him. The sharper curveball he's working on, for instance, is one of the last things Royals pitching coach Bob McClure taught him. He loved Kansas City. Still does. His wife loves it even more.

Maybe he'll go back someday. He thinks about it from time to time, but first, he hears that a whole lot of people in and around the Royals want to tell him hi.

"Yeah, well, we'll see," he says. "We'll see who I say hi to. I don't like talking to the other team, no matter who it is.""