Another Reason Why Pettitte Won’t Be Coming Back
Via Ken Davidoff –
Andy Pettitte has made retirement contemplation a way of life. This marks the fifth straight offseason in which he hasn’t held a firm commitment to pitch the subsequent year, and in each of those, he has considered retirement with various degrees of seriousness.
The 38-year-old lefthander is taking his uncertainty deeper into this 2010-11 break, however, and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman firmly reiterated Monday that he’s approaching his work as though Pettitte won’t return.
“I’ve got no updates from Andy to give,” Cashman said. “He’s told me to move forward without him. It has nothing to do with money, leverage, recruiting or any of that. It’s whether his heart’s into playing or not.
“Maybe in a month, he’ll change his mind. I can’t predict it. It’s not a baseball issue. It’s a personal issue. We’re moving forward as he requested. He’s not in it. He’s told me not to rely on him, so I’m focusing on what he’s told us.”
An added potential factor is that Pettitte’s 2011 figures to be disrupted by his involvement in the U.S. government’s perjury case against Roger Clemens. The government regards Pettitte as a “star witness,” and Clemens’ attorneys surely will attempt to discredit Pettitte.
While Pettitte moves toward a final decision, Cashman said he has nothing hot on the trade or free-agent fronts. The Yankees don’t see fits with Tampa Bay for Matt Garza or with the White Sox for Gavin Floyd or Edwin Jackson, and they’re not particularly excited by free agents such as Freddy Garcia and Kevin Millwood.
I totally forgot about the Clemens thing. No way Andy wants to be in New York with all that going down. Book it. We won’t be seeing Pettitte with the Yankees in 2011. And, we can thank Roger Clemens for that.
I suppose it’s a somewhat plausible theory but I wouldn’t go so far as to “book it” since, whether he’s on the Yankees or on his ass at home, the controversy will find him one way or another. It’s not like not pitching will shield Pettitte from being deposed and subpoenad to trial.
Andy Pettitte may not want to pitch in 2011 for any number of reasons (or a combination of them) but I won’t presume to “book it” on the basis that you make every single thing into a mountain of cataclysmic proportions.
I don’t know how he doesn’t expect to be part of it; “hiding” in TX will serve little to no purpose, especially in this day and age, with the internet and all.
Raf wrote:
Bingo.
The drama that is constantly injected into this situation is hilarious. First one reporter writes that one of Andy’s close friends says he probably going to retire. Then another reporter writes that another one of Andy’s close friends says he will be coming back. Then another report comes out that Andy’s family have given him support should he choose to return. Now it’s speculation that Clemens’ perjury case will “disrupt” his 2011. This is nothing more than bored sports writers trying to engage readers in a slow winter as MJ has pointed out on several occasions.
The guy is going to choose to play if his heart is still in it and he can’t put the competitor in him to rest. The money will be there for him if does.
Perhaps he can take a page from Mickey Rivers’s book and change his name to Andre Petti?
Raf wrote:
Ask Chuck Knobluach. When he was named as a PED user, he was able to hide in Houston and no one could find/touch him. Think that would have been the same if Knobby was named as PED user while active and playing in NY? No way.
Being retired, living in a gated community, hiding in Houston has it’s advantages, BIG TIME, over having to be in the Yankees clubhouse everyday. And, I think Pettitte realizes this.
@ Steve Lombardi:
And all the other active players that have been named as PED users? How have they handled it? Pettitte was named as one.
I suspect that Knoblauch was able to “hide” because no one cared about him, or thought he was worth the effort. Remember, he had been retired for a while (5-6 years?), when the PED scandal broke.
@ Steve Lombardi:
Chuck Knoblauch hid? Then how come he appeared before Congress?
You can’t hide from the justice system. Whether Pettitte lives in a bunker in Houston or in a Manhattan apartment, one way or another, if the courts want to speak with him in conjunction with the Clemens trial, he’s got to appear. Period.
I’m not saying Pettitte will hide from the feds – just the NY media.
Steve Lombardi wrote:
If he’s sitting in a witness box in a federal courtroom in Houston, TX, the NY media will be there. It’s not only a story of interest to New Yorkers but to the entire sports media contingent in the United States. Whether he’s pitching or not, there will simply be no hiding from it.
I don’t know how media savvy Andy is but here is my take on this:
There are two kinds of “outed” steroid users: Retired Players and Active Players.
Generally speaking, the ones that are still active have a better chance of media “redemption” than the retired ones because their on field performance (assuming it is good) obscures their past misdeeds.
If you think about it, positive versus negative media treatment tends to correlate to active versus retired status.
Active: A-Rod and Andy. Retired: Clemens and Bonds.
Not totally that simple. But I think it is a major factor.
@ Steve Lombardi:
Actually, Knoblauch gave a statement at the time of the Mitchell Report. Then he had to testify before the Congressional committee. So he didn’t get to escape because he was retired.
As for this trial coming up in the summer, I have my doubts. How long ago was Bonds indicted? Three years ago. And he still hasn’t gone a trial yet.
@ lisaswan:
Given his prior comment (regarding the NY media), I think Steve’s referring to Andy not picking up the phone or answering his e-mails or the door, when the media comes running, if he were retired. Being in the clubhouse, he’d have to answer the same questions over and over and over and over…
I wonder how Albert Belle would’ve handled playing in NY.
@ Raf:
Be that as it may, Pettitte handled it during the ’08(?) season so it’s not anything he hasn’t gone through before and successfully negotiated. Further, as Lisa points out, it’s a stretch to imagine that the Justice Department and Rusty Hardin (Clemens’s attorney) are ready to litigate. There’s at least a year or two of pre-trial motions to get through before Andy Pettitte would ever see the inside of a courtroom.
I don’t know if Andy is coming back or not.
Neither does anyone else.
Andy included, I think.