Monday, February 18, 2008

Andy Pettitte Still the Man

We apologize for the lack of updates over the weekend, but we've been spending the time honoring our presidents. At least the ones we can remember.

I've been watching Andy Pettitte's press conference and I just have a few thoughts. First, I think its universally understood that he made a mistake. He admitted it, and he believes it was wrong. He felt pressure after signing the three year $31 million contract with the Astros, and didn't want to show up and hit the DL like Carl Pavano. I can't seem to find the article now, but I once read this interview from his first season with the Astro's where he was saying that he was getting cortisone shots in his injured elbow before every game he pitched. It got so bad that his last game against the Mets, his fast ball was in the 70's and his changeup was dipping into the 60's. The speed was so foreign to the Mets that they were actually getting fooled on the pitches. He pitched 5.2 innings with 1 earned run that day. After that he got the surgery that ended his season. What he did was wrong, but he did it out of a sense of debt that he had to his team. How many players are happy to collect their checks on the DL? Pettitte made a mistake, but he deserves another chance, and the fact that he's accepting the consequences makes him the man.

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