Today in The Journal News
-
- February
- 18
Andy Pettitte arrives in camp today and will have some questions to answer.
George Steinbrener called Joe Girardi in for a friendly talk. This notebook also has updates on some active catchers, Kei Igawa, Morgan Ensberg and Hideki Matsui.
If you didn’t get a chance to read the blog this weekend, there were plenty of entries about camp to go through. Check them out.
This entry was posted
on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 7:38 am by Peter Abraham.
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Peter Abraham
It’s going to be a media feeding frenzy over there this morning. No wonder you’re up so early. Pettit should have just reported with everyone else and this could ‘ve been minimized.
Kei Igawa will be better than last year. Seriously, can he be any worse than last season? I don’t think it’s humanly possible.
Good luck to Andy this morning. He’s going to need it.
I agree with you Jim PA, he should have reported on time, if even to keep his teammates from having to answer questions for him for the past few days. But if he had things to take care of, he had things to take care of.
This is all going to go away in a few days, as evidenced by the lack of columns out there today about Clemens and McNamee.
I truly doubt this is going to affect Andy on the field. For one thing, physically, Eiland said in The Record that he talked to Andy and that he’s gotten his work in over the winter and that he’s right on track. Mentally, Andy is an absolute masochist. This is a guy that hangs up newspaper pages in his locker that berate him after bad games, and he’s also the same guy that Girardi used to have to scold for screaming at himself too loudly on the mound during games.
im looking at this differently. Today’s press conference will effectivly end the whole Mitcell report/ pettite did hgh thing for good. I’m sure andy and the rest of the yanks will put the whole mess behind them today and get down to the buisness of preparing for the ‘08 campaign. There will be nothing left to write regarding the matter and im sure pettitte will not answer questions about it after today’s press conference. Looking very much foreward to movin on after today!
Y’s Guy
I agree wit ya……….this should put and end to it.
“But if he had things to take care of, he had things to take care of.”
Yeah…let’s not forget that he also all that stuff going on with his son, who’s facing some pretty serious health issues after a car accident. I can see how he’d want/need to take a few days to spend time with him and/or square things away after getting through all the congress stuff.
Here’s the one question that I think should be asked - the only piece of the Pettitte story that doesn’t mesh.
If Pettitte received HGH from his father, and if his father has legitimate medical needs for HGH, why would his father get HGH for his son through an illegal supplier (apparently, a HS friend)? Why would his father know that this person could supply HGH? Why wouldn’t Pettite’s father have access to HGH through a doctor’s prescription?
I could be missing something. I’m inclined to believe Pettitte, but why would the Pettittes access a gym owner for HGH? And if Andy knew that that source existed, how do we know that his use was limited to what is stated in his current story.
P.S. I know, I know …. How about Papi, and Nomar, and Varitek, and Kapler, and Nixon, etc. etc.? I certainly have my suspicions about several Red Sox, but they were fortunate that their personal trainers weren’t in the crosshairs of the IRS. But with respect to the case at hand, Pettitte’s 2004 explanation has some leakage.
I hope the press conference today ends this whole circus for a while. I’m sick of it. I want to read about baseball, spring training, how the team is shaping up. Not this nonsense.
I actually bought the Daily News yesterday because I wanted to read about baseball while I had my coffee (I almost never buy a newspaper anymore—I read everything online). Of course, it was all about Pettitte. Give me some news, give me some stats, list some milestones players will reach this year, not this HGH crap.
“I could be missing something. I’m inclined to believe Pettitte, but why would the Pettittes access a gym owner for HGH? And if Andy knew that that source existed, how do we know that his use was limited to what is stated in his current story.”
Right. Jeff Novitsky is almost certainly on his way to speak with that High School friend of Pettitte’s I write this. That assumes of course that the local DA isn’t trying to get a piece of the spotlight by locking that guy up himself.
Unfortunately, Pettitte’s answers and non-answers today will not stop the frenzy. It’s the questions, not his answers that are the problem. For example:
“Andy have you finally told the truth about how many times you used HGH or any other PED? Why should anyone believe you now?”
“Once and for all, how many times have you used HGH or any other PED?”
“Andy, did you ever get HGH directly from your high school buddy?”
“Your testimony is being touted as the biggest problem Roger Clemens has right now. Do you think teammates should inform on teammates, friends give up friends?”
“Andy do you believe Roger?”
“Who is right, who told the truth, you or Roger?”
“Andy, if the allegations against Clemens are true, in your opinion does he or anyone who cheated belong in the Hall of Fame?”
This is so far from over.
Don, at this point stats and baseball related stuff doesn’t sell to the average fan, and I would say that we are not average fans. So, they powers to be put stuff that you would find on ET or TMZ on the back pages.
As for anyone who doesn’t think that a great majority of MLB players from the last twenty years didn’t do some form of PED, is fooling themselves. This is probably the biggest travesty of the Mitchell Report…naming names. If they were unable to name more than ~1% of the players that that played over the last twenty years they should not have named any…but that would have been a big waste of ~20-million dollars.
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?
Murphydog
So I would expect that until the media has decided to let this go, we will still have to read about it.
Drive
That would be like biting the hand that feeds you.
Vader,
Exactly. But it would be fair.
Personally, and I think the vast majority of fans would agree, enough is enough. The writers are telling only one side of the story and are beating a dead horse.
“So I would expect that until the media has decided to let this go, we will still have to read about it.”
We don’t HAVE to read anything. I try skip most of pete’s posts about the steroid stuff, and do most of my baseball reading on sites that are kind of ignoring this…baseball analysts, baseball prospectus, mlbtraderumors, chad jennings’ blog, stuff like that.
Basically…this story isn’t interesting to me. I vote with my eyes. I will easily be outvoted by people who prefer a soap opera to baseball, but there’s nothing I can do about that.
whozat,
I do the same. Unfortunately, today is a day when headline writers are looking for something splashy. It’s time for the fans to say that we know enough and we’ve had enough.
I agree, I haven’t read much about this since the hearings, but the problem is the papers will not stop because it attracts a different type of fan.
Money quote from Girardi, on Igawa: “We’re trying to adapt to his ways a little bit.”
The Marshall family never understood the ways of the Sleestaks on the ’70s Saturday Morning show, Land of the Lost.