By Jimmy Cunningham, howiGit New York Writer, Manhattan, NY
Andy Pettitte is scheduled to announce his retirement today. As a Yankee fan this hurts for two reasons, one because the Yankees pitching staff will suffer and two because its Andy Pettitte.
Andy has been a warrior during his two stints with the Yankees winning the World Series 5 times. When the Yankees faced a team in a series clincher fans always felt comfortable with Andy on the mound, as is shown by his record 6 series clinching wins. Another record Andy hold is all-time playoff wins by a pitcher with 19.
Andy’s career is not without controversy with him being outed as using performance enhancing drugs. But Andy was a man about the whole thing admitting to using HGH twice in 2002 to recover from an injury while with the Astros. That does not excuse his use of performance enhancing drugs, he used them and will go down in history as one of those who used. I would rather players do things the way Andy did though and stand up, admit their mistake, apologize, and move on. Something his good buddy Roger Clemens, among others *cough Papi cough*, should learn from.
I will miss Andy Pettitte’s fire and post season “clutchness”, I will miss his staring down of the catcher and lethal pick off move, and I will miss him when his spot in the rotation comes around this year.
A couple of reactions to this article:
1) I understand your sentiment. Pettite was a long term Yankee, a solid lefty, and one that you could trust with the ball in a big game. That’s not easy to find.
2) A cheap shot at Papi, who basically did exactly what you mentioned. He said, “I’m going to be truthful, I’m not going to hide, and as soon as I’m told what I failed a test for I’ll make the information public.” That’s pretty stand up to me. It’s MLB who needs to stand up and not keep this information from the players. I’m sure many players have failed tests and aren’t exactly sure what its for with all the crap they take.
3) Sure, I put an asterisk next to Pettite for his HGH use. That said, I agree that he handled things as best as possible and I do give him some credit for that.
4) Yanks need some pitching.
1. Andy was a great Yankee, and a player very team would love to have for the time the Yankees had him.
2. Don’t talk to me about cheap shots, go one week with out one at Eli. Andy admitted what he did, Papi is on a list for performance enhancing drugs and says he never took any. You don’t know that Papi wasnt told “Yeah it was the anabolic steriods your doctor told you would not show up in tests” and he decided to not say anything. Papi put something in his body to set off that test but has said nothing about what he put in it.
3. Pettitte completly manned up and I feel he is seen a little differently because of that. He is not the bad guy that others seem to be. Could be because of the way he carries himself or the way he handled this situation.
4. What do you mean, they have like 5 pitchers from the 2002 all star game.
1) Fairly true.
2) Eli is a different matter because he’s not good. Papi never said he’s never taken any supplements — he said he’s not sure what he failed for — and it will be public knowledge when her’s told.
3) Agreed, but he’s no saint. He still disrespected the game to make a buck.
4) Love it, but know it won’t last. Yanks will soon be signing everything under the sun.
Fairly true? name a a team that would want him for the last 15 years.
Eli is good your just a clown.
So did what seems to be the entire league, including a majority of your curse breakers.
There is not much left under the sun to sign, they do have alot of low risk high reward players, something you touted the Celtics for doing this offseason.
Ok, true.
Leading the league in turnovers is the definition of being bad.
A majority of my curse breakers? You mean Bronson Arroyo? Manny?
I’m all for low risk high reward players — I’d do this if I was a GM. That said, I’m not sold on Bartolo Colon as the Red Sox already tried that experiment without any luck.
He was also top five in touchdown passes and yards; top ten in yard per attempt and completion percentage. You can keep harping on that one stat though if it makes you feel any better about Eli giving the Patriots their only loss in 2007, in the only game that really mattered.
Arroyo, Manny, Papi (he is on that list of performance enhancers, i dont care if it was supplement his performance was enhanced), Damon, Varitek. That is your ALCS MVP and World Series MVP, a major contributer in Damon, a guy who went 3-0 in those playoffs, and the team captain. And I am sure those are the ONLY guys and no one else.
In terms of Eli, yes those stats are true. But also, do those stats really matter very much when he’s turning it over more than any player in the league? I’m sure any coach would trade those stats to cut down on turnovers. You can’t deny that.
So your list is based on rumors is what you are telling me. The only known PED users for sure you named are Manny and Arroyo. Papi is likely as well, although it’s know he’s on a list that could contain names of people who didn’t actually fail any test. There is no evidence that Damon or Varitek used as far as I know.
j-bone doesnt care about evidence.. that’s why he hates ben rothlesberger
Being in the top 5 and top ten in major in yards, touchdowns, completion percentage, and ypa really matter, you can ask any coach that. Even leading the league in picks he did not have the worst td/int ratio.
Varitek has been linked to the same list as Manny and Papi by more then a few sources, Damon most recently is on the same list as Ray Lewis and his deer horn spray.
Every single player is just rumor unless they admit it, if thats the case there are only like 10 steriod users during the “steriod era” I think we all know that is not the case.
Varitek and Damon have not been linked by any good sources. In fact, it’s been said that Varitek is NOT on the list that Manny and Papi were, by quite a few sources.
Not to bring the discussion back to Mr. Pettite, but is he a lock for the Hall of Fame in spite of his performance enhancing drug usage?
He’s a tough one. His 162 game averages are 17-10 with a 3.88, and he had 240 wins which are all border line numbers in my book but probably good enough. He was only a 3 time all-star and very rarely led the league in any statistical category. It’s his post season resume that would make him a Hall of Famer. The real question is how much will his PED use weigh on his chances at making the Hall. I used to (and still very much do) think that any PED user should be banned from the Hall. That said, with the extent of use these days, that’s problematic because some players that got away with using and weren’t caught could get in. I’m not sure what the answer is. Put Griffey and Maddux in there and lock everyone else out I say.
His playoff record is principally why raise the question. We ask that our athletes and stars perform at the highest levels when it counts the most, during the playoff. This something Pettite certainly has done.
I’m uncomfortable as you with PED users getting into the Hall of Fame. However, because of the way Pettite carried himself while admitting his guilt and possibly a more forgiven future attitude about PED usage, I feel Pettite might simply walk into Copperstown on the first or second ballet.
I think he will get in but not on the first or second ballet. The steroid issue is to recent in the minds of voters and a lot of them are not willing to vote for users to get in. Only problem with this is that a lot of the players form this era have used and are HOF’ers and still deserve to get in. For someone like Pettite I do not think PED’s were the reason he performed the way he did, so it was his talent alone that made him the player he was, not the drugs. This can apply to a lot of players who used and why they still deserve to get in.
what makes you believe they would have been just as good? Just trying to get the reason you believe a lot of players that used PED’s still deserve to get in. From what i understand Petitte did only use for a short period of time.. but it was to recover from an injury. Had he not taken the PEDs who knows what could have happened with that injury and his career.
I am not sure if he gets in on his numbers, as mentioned the playoff numbers may push him over the top. The PED issue and the hall of fame is a tough one. There is no way to know everyone that did it, there are players that are not getting in because the media beleives they did it, and I am sure there are people in already that have. I think they really should just go by on the field, regardless of PED.
I agree with Kevin. I real issue for me concerning PED usage is increasing the longevity of a player’s career. Hence providing a player the opportunity to improve one’s stats and/or break baseball’s “hollowed” records.