Preparations for Pettitte
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- February
- 18
The national media (ESPN, USA Today, Fox Sports, Yahoo Sports, etc.) has descended on Legends Field for the Andy Pettitte Inquisition.
The press conference isn’t until 3 p.m. We’ll have audio available here as soon as we can.
Pettitte will have his lawyer with him, so expect some of his answers to be in legalese. With Roger Clemens having filed a lawsuit against Brian McNamee, Pettitte could be called as a witness.
There is also the lingering possibility of Clemens being indicted by the Justice Department. Pettitte also would likely be a witness in that case.
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on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 9:14 am by Peter Abraham.
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Peter Abraham
Let’s get back to baseball, shall we?
No more circus.
Could he plead the fifth in that case?
Also, I have a gut feeling that Phil will make his doubters last year into believers.
“Could he plead the fifth in that case?”
He wouldn’t be being asked to incriminate himself, so no.
I’m deeply critical of Mitchell’s process (tabloid-level investigations prior to publishing, strong appearance of impropriety based on team allegiance, etc.). But I am disappointed in those who illegally abused drugs, including Giambi and Pettitte. It’s clearly a mark against their reputations as men.
What should it mean for their baseball reputations?
For me, it can depend on how prevalent this practice has been.
If it turns out Roger did steroids and 80% of the batters he faced did too, it would color it one way. If it turns out 80% were clean, I’d be much harder on the 20% who cheated.
Not only the possible perjury charges that the Federal government could file against Clemens, though I think that would be very difficult for them to prove, there is the suits of Clemens vs. McNamee and McNamee vs. Clemens to deal with.
Pettitte will be dragged into them regardless of how much he would want to just pitch.
How much you want to bet that today will be tougher on the pitcher than the committee grilling he took?
Andy is a rat. His story has changed more often that I care to recount yet he is viewed as a saint. He deserves to get an earful from the fans when he takes the field on Tuesday.
What if you drove 55 MPH and were late to a business pitch, only to find out that your competitors all drove over the speed limit to get there on time?
Granted, a reductionist example. But our sympathies for the cheating speeders are colored by our sense of the general prevalence and acceptance of speeding in the driving community. In fact, many otherwise-law-abiding citizens may mutter under their breath that the non-cheater going 55 should “get out of the way!”
It will be sad if steroid/HGH use is as prevalent as speeding. But a whole generation of baseball greats pumped up their stats because baseball systematically kept African American talent off the field. In retrospect, we hate that they did it, but in some ways accept it was the times.
Yazman, I doubt that it will ever be learned just how much HGH and steroid use went on in Baseball.
Clemens - if it comes out that he did lie about his use, it will be the lies that come down on him harder than his use of PEDs.
Given how pitchers like Pettitte and Byrd have used HGH, two who seem pretty clean cut and unlikely candidates for using the stuff, how likely is it that the percentage of use throughout baseball is a low 20%?
The Mitchell report did nothing to help clean up baseball. It was a remarkably poor document put out by someone who should have known better.
Congress was falling all over themselves to protect that piece of crud report, and therefore protect the reputation of one of their own. Notice again, it was a party line battle.
When is someone going to hold a press conference with Bud Selig about the effects of the Mitchell Report on this Spring Training?
andy, the more you continue to answer with what is to the best of your knowledge the truth, the sooner all this will end for you and you will escape the unpleasantness of sleepless nights punctuated by meds.
I hate to repost, but this is basically a continuation of the last thread.
The story that needs to be told is the one that no one is writing. The players are taking the brunt of the negative publicity.The Commissioner and owners pretty much got off with a gentle slap on the wrist and were told to not let it happen again.
I opoligize for using such a crude analogy, but the steroid scandal is a lot like a prostitution ring. You have players doing something illegal and you have a commisioner/owner who basically pimped the drug users out.
I’ll be impressed when some writer has the guts to ask Bud Selig or anyone in Management if they’ve noticed a difference in the physical size of the players coming to Spring Training this year in comparison to the late ’90’s/early 2000’s. Or perhaps question them about financial estimates of the revenue growth from ‘95 to present and how much of that can be traced to records being broken on the field?
Andy Pettitte and the rest of the users were wrong. They were participants in a drug culture that greatly benifitted them financially. The exact same words can be used to describe Bud Selig and the owners.
If your going to grill Andy Pettitte, how about if someone grills Management?
Better yet, how ’bout if we just acknowledge that baseball has been tainted by a scandal, is recovering and we just move on?
Blah, blah, blah. Move on to the juicy stuff like baseball.
Who will win the first base job: Morgan Ensberg or Shelley Duncan? Who is going to fill out the bullpen? Anyone wanna take a stab at it?
i think pettitte has said more than enough. he’s given congressional depositions. with his constantly evolving release of what he remembers, i think he should just shut up and move on.
i like andy pettitte, but there’s something about how he’s going about telling the “truth” that doesn’t make me want to hear any more”truth” from him.
if he wants to apologize for his own personal behavior,fine. anything beyond that, and i think he’s just making problems for everyone. i think the lawyer is probably there to have him keep it simple and on point.
telling the truth is not always the right thing to do. for example, if a serial killer ,who’s after a little kid, asks a person who saw the little kid hide where the kid was hiding,it would not be right to tell the truth.
that’s straight from ethics 101. telling the truth is not always the highest virtue. it depends on who you are telling it to and how it’s going to be used. the problem that i see with andy is he thinks when talking to a “higher authority” like the government that he always has to cooperate with them. it is a simplistic and naive to trust that those in authority always have good intentions.
judges in california would beg to differ over federal agents handling of the baseball steroid/peds case that they always have good intentions. the duke assaut case shows the problems of abuse of power. instead of trusting authority , i think it’s healthier to always question authority.
then do what is right.
Wouldn’t Andy have been better off arriving early in the morning and having his presser at about 9-10 am?
I love Andy but he deserves what he gets. I have no doubt that he will pitch effectively this year. I do however have some concerns about him taking the 16 million when he knew that this would be coming.
Nick Johnson is probably on the trade block.
I know that he is ‘injury prone’, but last year’s breaking of his leg is a total fluke and doesn’t speak to future injuries.
0.887(2005) and 0.948(2006) OPS (0.428 OBP last year) are serious numbers. He is under contract for ‘08 and ‘09 for $5.5m/yr. That is cheap for an average player, a steal for a stud like Nick.
If the Yanks get him and let him become a FA after 2009, would we get a draft pick?
If either Montero or Miranda look read, isn’t a 2 year contract perfect?
The Nationals are hungry for young, cheap pitching, yes?
He will be 29 the entire season. He is still relatively yong. I know there are issues, but this would be a good example of buying low and good bang for the buck. Over the last 2 years, he actually has a slight higher OPS against lefties.
I think you have to at least talk to Bowden, no?
I would love to have Nick Johnson back but I am not sure I am willing to give up a good prospect for him.
Let the inquisition begin indeed Pete. Funny thing, Greg Zaun’s statement on how his check wasn’t meant to buy steroids but to pay back a dept even thought he basically wrote the amount but not to whom, only lasted about 2 seconds on ESPN. And Paul Loduca’s pathetic apology lasted about 1 second. Pettite, well…Pettite gets scorched by the media. Makes me wonder how people really care about steroids in baseball more than just the show. Hopefully Andy will address it only this one time and get it behind him because frankly, when the media gets into a feeding frenzy, they are worst than vultures. I don’t hold anything against Pettite. Him along with tons of other players who are unamed and using him and Roger as shields, were using PEDs with the support of the sport. Now that it has hit the fan, MLB pleads ignorance and sacrifices some players after it rode their arms and bats. and at the end, no one really cares. Why? because otherwise Bud Selig (the sole responsible for this in my opinion) wouldn’t have unanimously gotten a 3 year extension. But how can you blame this decision when baseball is a $6 Billion dollar sport with its highest attendance in history? all because of HGH and Steroids….so, do we really care? NOPE. another high attendance this season again. bank on it.
“He wouldn’t be being asked to incriminate himself, so no.”
Maybe. But what about the new evidence linking Pettitte to his High School buddy and HGH? That story is far from over.
If it turns out that Pettitte has lied even more than he has already admitted to, and used HGH more frequently than he said, maybe he lied to Congress too and maybe he has also implicated himself in a crime for which the statute of limitations has not yet run out. Illegal HGH use as recently as 2004? He faces possible local charges as well as federal charges. That’s not even considering what the Commissioner’s Office will do about this. Shouldn’t Pettitte be suspended and fined for using HGH after the ban date?
Randy l - you’re point about the ‘authorities’ not always having the best intentions is sometimes true, but we’re talking about testimony to Congress here. You don’t have a choice whether or not to attend the hearing and lying can put you in jail. I’m sure Pettitte values his family more than potentially giving damaging testimony against Clemens, especially if Pettitte knows Clemens is lying thru his teeth.
murphydog-
if pettitte used hgh after the ban date, i guess he would be suspended. when was the ban date first started?
i will say a few things to all yankees. do not tell andy anything that you don’t want his wife and the whole world to know. always tape all conversations so that no misunderstandings take place, and if they do , you are covered later if andy gets it mixed up. other than that, just act natural around andy.
if pettitte gets suspended for a lengthy amount of time, that’s gonna be a problem.
I think Nick Johnson is a strong possibility, even though Bowden can be difficult to negotiate with. Let’s see if Johnson is fully recovered from that leg injury.
Hopefully, Joe Girardi can make Farnsdearth into Farnsworth.
The LoDucas and Zauns of the world aren’t associated with the Yankees. It’s probably the only reason why they haven’t been scorched by the media.
My bad… HGH was banned in Jan 2005.
Curious that Andy now admits a 2004 use, but not anything after that. Under the circumstances if it wasn’t Pettitte talking I would say this story stinks. (Hell, it stinks even though it’s Andy Pettitte talking).
“You have players doing something illegal and you have a commisioner/owner who basically pimped the drug users out.”
————————————————————
This, of course, is both the core and the motivation of this matter. The MR specifically went after Clemens (this is documented in written depositions) and intentionally ‘named names’, specifically to draw attention to Clemens (not unlike the whole Bonds issue) and allow us to Ignor Bud, Fehr, ownership, and the whole money grubbing MLB establishment that were enablers of a systemic problem.
It is a typical political move (Gee, I wonder why Mitchell was hired, conflict of interest and all) that is used to give the ignorant masses a sacrificial lamb to focus their anger on. It allows the McMorons of the world to stand on thier soapboxes, beat their chests, and then go back to pulling their puds without ever demanding any real justice for those responsible.
Does anyone remember that during the first hearing, Bud and Fehr denied, under oath, knowing about steroids in baseball, and then later in the last hearing, admitted they knew about the steroid problem and even admitted some responsibility? Where’s the anger?
It is embarassing and a sad commentary on the American public that so many of you are gobbling up this media hyped ‘Aint Andy bad/ain’t Roger bad’ crap. Of course, now all you saints, as Fans, don’t have to write letters or voice complaint about Bud, Mitchell and the entire MLB system. You saints have your Osama now, so you can continue to be part of the problem by not being part of the solution. We can burn Andy and Roger at the stake and then go back to our blissful ignorance.
So uninterested. I was tired of this story 2 years ago. More baseball, less B.S.
Hey, just curious how is that Pats “spygate” story turning out?
I must say, I’m shocked the Daily News didn’t have pictures of Andy on the plane to Tampa. Maybe next they can write a story about if he wears boxers or briefs. Well I guess they still have all day to write that up.
You know what I hate about this whole thing. Andy is the one receiving all the heat. Not Justice, Laduca, or anyone else in the report.
The moron on 1050 said Pettitte is worse than Clemens and McNamee! What? He said Pettitte isn’t getting any heat cause he wears his religion on his sleeve. What? I guess he isn’t reading the papers or listening to the radio.
If I can get tickets to the opener, I will be there to cheer Andy on! This just isn’t fair!
At 4PM, there will be a news conference featuring Matt Walsh and Brian McNamee to announce their new book: “Bringing Down Legends — Cheating with the ‘Best’* - The Truth About the Rocket and Coach Bill.”
Spring Training should be about the crack of the bat, the pop of the glove, the warmth of the sun, the green grass and the promise of the season ahead.
Instead we get this crud.
I thought the best thing Pettitte could have done was show up unannounced on Friday immediately hold his press conference (don’t feed the national media) and then do the whole now only baseball questions I’ll never talk about this again thing. He would have left them to report it on slow news Saturday (even though they would have splashed it on the back pages on Sunday as well). The most annoying aspect of the situation is the media will ask questions of Pettitte and his teammates all year looking for any trivial excuse to print new pointless stories that will be used as an excuse by the national media to chew up and down and all around. Marino Rivera in August says he felt bad for his friend back in Spring training cut to Skip Bayless on Espn “Oh boo hoo maybe he should save his sorry for blah blah blah” that kind of stuff.
Can’t wait until this day is over so we can actually talk about baseball and what’s going on with the other players in camp and how they’re doing.
“The moron on 1050 said Pettitte is worse than Clemens and McNamee! What? He said Pettitte isn’t getting any heat cause he wears his religion on his sleeve. What? I guess he isn’t reading the papers or listening to the radio.”
It’s the culture wars bubbling up again. You can do drugs and not be attacked as long as you are famous and agree to go into Rehab. You can even kill yourself with a reckless overdose, deprive your baby of a father, and still be lauded as a great actor and person so full of life, but who just had “demons” to battle (Heath Ledger). But you cannot let people know that you have Judeo-Christian religious beliefs without automatically being dubbed as unintelligent, paternalistic, anti-Third World and hypocritical. In fact it’s hypocritical to suggest that anyone who is a practicing Christian will be getting a pass from the media anywhere in today’s America.
I predict Farnsworth will pitch just well enough in the early going to give us hope that he’s really turned the corner… but then will leave us bitterly disappointed through a series of blown saves in high-pressure September/October games.
Can’t we just leave him alone for now?
Baseball’s back.
Let’s enjoy it.
On the positive side, this baptism under fire the team is encountering including new manager Joe Girardi could be the type of thing that really strengthens the team. I think Joe is just the right type of guy to turn the adversity into a forging of heart and ability. That said — Play Ball!
I read somewhere else that Pettitte was going in to this press conference alone, without his lawyer.
I guess we’ll find out in 4 hours, eh?
Pettitte betrayed Roger Clemens…You dont do that to friends.
Now lets talk baseball Pete and all of you guys.
You can sell drugs …get a slap on the hand. You lie about taking drugs …go to prison. Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture ??
As far as all the self-righteous people on these blogs…I have to laugh and would love to see a little of their unblemished past. I bet there would be a lot of surprises…not good ones either.
I stated in the last blog …Andy is called a liar but when he tells the truth …he’s a rat. He didn’t come forward till listed ..but..in all honesty…would you either? At least he fessed up once his name was on the list…a lot more than others have done. If he wasn’t a Yankee…this would have been over and done with faster than a blink of an eye.
To this day I still can’t believe they would release a “few” names especially since it was stated that there were many, many more. It should have been all the names or none …not just a choice few. Without all the suspected names the report was not complete and should never have been released…IMO.
I wish Andy luck …he’s going to need it when surrounded by all the vultures today.
Let’s play ball …Go Yankees 2008 !!!
I predict we won’t learn anything new.
Hey, Peter, you should throw everyone off and ask him a baseball question. Like, “How does the Yanks starting staff look to you this year? Who will be the breakout rookie?”
is the media ashamed of themselves yet? I certainly lay some of the blame for this mess on everyone in the media industry who has devoted time to this issue.
Instead of focusing on the players (the low hanging fruit shall we say) how about some real journalism. Go after Bud Selig, the owners, and the player’s union. Now that would be worthy of a career in journalism.
This nonsense about Andy taking HGH for 5 days or whatever, Roger Cemens possibly lying so he can get into the hall of shame, and the U.S. Congress circus, is useless.
Step up to the plate and make some real noise. Go after the guys who have made trillions of dollars from this. You think the drug dealers and traffikers make money. Huh, the friggin owners are swimming in cash because the players have eaten the candy and the media has played along.
Unbelievable.
Andy Pettitte is a class act. I wish him nothing but the best. Andy,god bless you and your family,have a great year,don’t worry about what fans say,and please take it easy on my Red Sox.