OK, so much ado has been made over Andy Pettitte’s role in this whole Roger Clemens/Brian McNamee fiasco. Congressman Elijah Cummings said Pettitte seemed to be the most believable character of those who spoke to Congress. People seem to think he did something great. Matt Watson nailed it calling Andy Pettitte a liar for saying he only used HGH once in 2002, when in fact he also knowingly used it in 2004. While I don’t condone cheating the game and your competitors, I found Pettitte’s reasoning for why he used HGH particularly intriguing. Here is the reasoning from Pettitte’s deposition, which I spent the hour braving through (so you don’t have to, because after all, I’m really looking out for you):
On his use in 2002 …
I was making an awful lot of money. I wanted to give back to the team. I had been on the DL before. But I knew I had hurt my elbow pretty bad this time. I was on there for an extended period of time, where before with my elbow I’d only missed a coupleof weeks. But I knew that I was missing some extended period of time there. And I just felt like that it was the honorable thing to do, if I could do whatever I could to try to get back on the field and try to earn my money.
And then on using later in 2004 (where he actually says he injected himself, ewwww), this is a must-read:
First start of the season with the Houston Astros in ’04 I check swung, very first at-bat, and I popped my tendon in my elbow. My flexor tendon. The next day I had an MRI, found out I needed to have surgery and decided not to have the surgery, you know, they recommended that I have surgery. But I just signed a $30 million contract with the Astros. My first start with the hometown team and I was like, there’s no way I’m going out like this. So got a few cortisone injections into my elbow that year through the team doctor to try to help me get back. I came back off the DL after trying to rehab it. Went back on the DL. Had to miss a start here and there. Through all this I was getting Toradol injections, which was a painkiller that you get, you know, so I could just deal with the pain when I was making my starts. And the team doctors were administering that and the trainers for the Astros. And anyhow, just ended up going back to my dad.
And as we learned it was through his dad that he got the HGH the second time. So how about that? Pettitte thought using HGH was the honorable thing to do because he felt he owed it to the team and fans to be out there. All of us on talk radio, in the newspapers, in those stinking blogs ripping the guy for being soft and spending time on the DL, and he used HGH to try and please ’em all. While I don’t approve of Pettitte lying in the first place, I without question can forgive him for trying HGH. That’s the thing, all you have to do is fess up and ask for forgiveness, and most of the time it’s granted. How can you not forgive Pettitte after reading that?
