Social Media Quick to Believe Zack Greinke Threw a Fan's Baseball Away For His Own Amusement

The Kansas City Royals hosted the Oakland Athletics at Kauffman Stadium on Sunday afternoon. At one point before the game Royals pitcher Zack Greinke apparently walked over to some fans, took a baseball from one of them, inspected it and threw it away according to a Facebook post which has been screengrabbed and shared on Twitter and Reddit.

Right before I took this picture greinke acted like he was about to sign my ball... he came over grabbed the ball and looked at me and then chucked it as far as he could. I asked why he did that... he said " for my amusement". Weirdest player i've ever met.

We don't have much to go on here, but that is a grumpy-looking Greinke in the proper uniform for yesterday's game. People have jumped on the story because it lines up with Greinke's public persona, which is that he doesn't like the public. Via the Associated Press during the 2020 season which was played without fans:

“I don’t really notice fans when the game’s going on, but warming up and practice before games, I mean for me it’s nice not having fans in the stands,” Greinke said Tuesday before Game 3 of the AL Championship Series against the Tampa Bay Rays. “Most people like it. When the game comes on it’s the same for me.”

Asked to explain, he said: “Because then there’s no one there to talk to you and ask for autographs and want pictures and all that stuff. I don’t like to do that stuff. It’s nice not having them, for me. Most people like it. I don’t like it.”

The Facebook post has since been shared by Jomboy and Ben Verlander who would both be familiar with Greinke's reputation.

Whatever actually happened before this picture was taken, Greinke launching some fan's baseball is now part of his fan-unfriendly lore.