Monday, February 24, 2014

Greinke Not Fired Up For Going Down Under

Obligatory absolute zero reference

Remember how Dusty thought everyone would be all fired up?

Apparently, Zack Greinke doesn't agree, as "absolutely zero excitement" for the Dodgers' season opening trip to Sydney, Australia:

Travelling to Sydney to open the Major League Baseball season is proving too much for the Los Angeles Dodgers, with star pitcher Zack Greinke claiming there is "absolutely zero excitement" for coming to Australia.

The Dodgers are also reportedly considering leaving their No.1 pitching ace Clayton Kershaw back in the United States, with their March 22-23 opening series against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Sydney looking more like a chore for the powerhouse side than a historic chance to spread the baseball gospel.

Greinke is LA's No.2 pitcher behind $US215 million ($A239.06 million) man Kershaw, and would likely start in one of the two matches to be played at the SCG next month.

But the 30-year-old says he'd rather not come.

"I would say there is absolutely zero excitement for it," Greinke told ESPN.

"There just isn't any excitement to it. I can't think of one reason to be excited for it."

Organisers in Sydney are far from thrilled with Greinke's outburst but are holding off on making comment until they've spoken to relevant parties in America.

Setting aside the Sydney organizers not using a "z", I can understand their concern and disappointment over The Tiny-Headed One's words. This is supposed to be MLB's next big step into globalizing the sport, and Australia, trapped in arcane Commonwealth games like cricket and netball, not to mention provincial pursuits like Australian Rules Football, could stand to embrace (and probably eventually dominate, given Australians' love for sport) a new athletic pursuit. The Dodgers' games are a week ahead of the rest of the season, leaving more than enough time to adjust to the jet lag (I know this myself).

I've already bought my ticket, Zack. How about you show up motivated to mow down some Diamondbacks down under?

t-shirt available here; Yu-Gi-Oh card swiped from here

8 comments:

Fred's Brim said...

Is anybody besides Sax and AC excited about this? I assume the teams that had to go to Japan in past years plus the NFL teams that have to go to London hate it too.
The only good thing is that we get baseball a few days earlier

Jason said...

I've always been partial to the kelvin scale.

Hideo Nomo said...

But when has Greinke been excited about ANYTHING?

Jason said...

Greinke is capable of smiling.

Dusty Baker said...

I'm considering being mostly fired up for this, FB.

Fred's Brim said...

@DB how much of that excitement is general "baseball fever" and how much is the actual trip?

Dusty Baker said...

@FB

100% shrooms

Steve Sax said...

just added the yu-gi-oh card about which I had written a footnote. not sure what happened there