When Roger Clemens swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth on Capitol Hill last week, he apparently had no idea what those words actually meant. Enough circumstantial evidence was revealed to effectively convict The Rocket in the court of public opinion. Brian McNamee had no real motivation to rat out his former buddy, he was telling the truth about other players in the Mitchell Report and Clemens may even have tampered with a potential witness who said that he was indeed at a Jose Canseco-hosted party which Clemens denied attending. Despite the fact that Brian McNamee isn’t the most reliable source, anybody who came away from watching those hearings thinking that Clemens didn’t cheat is simply blinded by 300-plus wins and 4,000-plus strikeouts, many of which are now tainted.
Much has already been written about how all this will negatively affect Clemens’ legacy. Previously considered one of the best pitchers in baseball’s storied history, The Rocket will most likely never be inducted into the Hall of Fame, a possibility which no doubt spurred this dog-and-pony show of deceit and bombast that culminated on Capitol Hill. But perhaps more important to a Yankees fan is what will now become of Andy Pettitte and how he will be remembered for his part in this mess. Because despite the attempts of blowhard Congressmen to cast Pettitte as some sort of saint for revealing that he and Clemens talked about HGH use, the reality is much more complex.
Although Pettitte’s career resume is far less impressive than Clemens’, Andy is more revered by Yankees fans. Most fans view Clemens as a mercenary who opportunistically latched on to the end of the Yankees dynasty. But Pettitte was born and bred a Yankee. He came up through their farm system and acquired a reputation as a big-game pitcher. In the 1996 World Series, Pettitte pitched the Yankees to a stunning Game 5, 1-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves in what opposing pitcher John Smoltz still calls the greatest game he ever pitched. Pettitte has compiled 14 postseason victories and just last year, he pitched a gusty 6 1/3 innings in the Yankees’ Game 2 ALDS loss to the Indians. He’s the guy every Yankees fan wants on the hill in a big spot and more often than not, Pettitte has delivered when it matters most. In addition, he’s known around baseball as a good guy, a soft-spoken religious man who is both a devoted husband and father.
But the revelations of the last few weeks have cast some aspersions on Pettitte’s previously pristine reputation (pardon the alliteration). When the Mitchell Report was revealed on Dec. 13, Pettitte was named as one of the players who had received HGH from McNamee. Two days later, he issued a half-hearted apology that sounded almost contentious, in which he said he used HGH for only two days in 2002 because he was trying to “heal,” not get “an edge.” Problem is, it wasn’t only two days. In 2004, Pettitte’s father helped him acquire HGH through a trainer that just happened to be related to Pettitte’s wife. And now, Pettitte is facing backlash for his sworn admissions about Clemens. There are those who contend that Andy sold out one of his closest friends when he could have just as easily not disclosed the details of his private conversations with Clemens. One thing is for sure: Pettitte doesn’t deserve any medals for finally coming clean.
There’s yet another public relations problem for Pettitte. After mulling retirement, Pettitte decided to accept the Yankees’ one-year, $16 million offer. At the time, he was lauded for announcing that he would either return to the Yankees or retire, rather than test the open market where he could’ve probably gotten more money. (After all, Carlos Silva, with 55 lifetime wins and zero postseason victories, got $12 million per year for four years from the Seattle Mariners this offseason.) But the timing now seems suspicious. The Yankees announced that Pettitte would return on Dec. 8, five days before The Mitchell Report was unveiled. Sunday’s Daily News had a story saying that Yankees brass decided it couldn’t afford to employ both Pettitte and Johan Santana. So the Pettitte signing effectively took the Yankees out of the running for the former Twins ace. Do you think they might be regretting that decision today?
Look, as a diehard Yankees fan, I have always loved Andy Pettitte. What’s been better over the past 12 years than the sight of Pettitte on the hill in October for a pivotal playoff game, those intense, narrow eyes of his glaring into home plate from beneath the brim of his cap? But Pettitte is yet another example of an athlete and public personality who purposefully projects a holier-than-thou image, only to be shamefully exposed. Look at this excerpt from Pettitte’s book “Strike Zone: Targeting a Life of Integrity and Purity:”
“As a Christian, I also have one goal. I want to fulfill God’s purpose for my life. I constantly ask myself ‘What does God want me to do?’ and ‘Where does He want me to go?’ Those may sound like odd questions to ask in a book about purity. After all, doesn’t purity just mean sexual purity? Hardly. As I said in the last chapter, living a pure life means trying to please God in everything I do. And the best way to please God is living in a way He can work through me and use me in other people’s lives.”
I’m pretty sure taking HGH does not fall under a life of purity. But that’s not even the problem. Human fallibility is never surprising. Taking HGH does not make Andy Pettitte a fraud. But his reaction does. In his apology, Pettitte said, “If what I did was an error in judgment on my part, I apologize. I accept responsibility for those two days.” If, Andy? Really? And a careful look at the language also reveals that Pettitte is trying to get people to mostly focus on the fact that it was only two days, an admission that later proved to be false. Telling the truth in dribs and drabs is probably not God’s will either.
As far as his use of HGH, Andy Pettitte is just another human being who made a mistake. The problem is that he now continues to compound his foibles. I’m still waiting for the day when one of these celebrities breaks from the pre-approved script written for them by their “people” and simply says: “I screwed up. I’m sorry. Here’s what I did. I’m going to try not to do it again.” Pettitte came close during his press conference in Tampa last Monday. But why didn’t he start out that way? Celebrities don’t ever really tell the “whole truth” because they think they have too much to lose. The irony is that guys like Pettitte and Clemens and Barry Bonds would have been better of just telling the truth from the get-go. We, as a society, don’t mind giving second chances. But in order to get a second chance, you have to be willing to admit you squandered your first chance.
Here’s the bottom line for Andy Pettitte: if there are any more surprise revelations forthcoming about his drug use, he’ll get even more battered than he already has been. It will be interesting to see how all these developments will affect his performance on the field. And because he was so beloved before the revelations of the last two months, it will be even more fascinating to see how history treats him when his career comes to an end.