Dear Sir,
Your presence is hereby requested on the afternoon of April 16, 2009.
We need you as starting pitcher on the day the world greets the new Yankee Stadium.
The Yankiverse needs you.
The other starters -- Sabathia, Burnett, Wang, Chamberlain -- may someday be great Yanks. You, however, have already earned that distinction. Therefore, please consider this request.
Sign the frickin' contract.
Frankly, sir, we don’t understand the holdup. The writers say the Yanks made an offer, but it's less than what you seek. We’re not sure what that means. It might just be the regular dickering between agent dicks and management dicks -- and if so, fine. Dicker away! If you get paid more money, great.
But we fear this dispute evolving into something else. Dicks are, after all, dicks.
Sir, you built a career based on projecting higher moral principles than the notion of squeezing quarters from Coke machines. You wrote a book about religion. You've raised a family. You took a tough stand when your friend Roger Clemens became poster boy -- unfairly, we say -- for drug injections. You have a well earned reputation for honesty. Now... wtf? -- it’s about money?
Nope. We don't believe this.
And that's why we worry.
Sir, on April 16, around 2:15 p.m., fifty thousand cameras will simultaneously click, and millions of people will step back to watch a moment that will be inscribed into history and remembered long after each of us is a smudge of dust on the collapsed interior of a pine box.
You belong in that photograph. You were destined to be that face, that imposing figure, that Yankee icon to be chistled into marble.
Get it done. Sign the frickin' contract. Now.
Just so it's understood: We’re not taking sides in a contract dispute. We don’t care. Yeah, it hurt watching the Yanks piss money on Carl Pavano, but if he had come back and pitched us to the World Series last September, no Yankee fan in creation would have complained about the lost years. And no Yankee fan wants you to earn less than you're worth.
But don’t let this fester.
Let the dicks dicker, but don’t let anyone dicker with your head.
Don’t let anyone whisper that you should be getting more, that you're being disrespected, that you should pitch somewhere else, that you should go someplace where you'll be really appreciated.
Your place is on that mound, April 16.
Get it done, sir. You have a date with history.
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9 comments:
Gotta disagree, Duque. The New Stadium is about the new era of Yankees, not the one that last won something 8 years ago.
I love Pettitte as much as any pinstriped fan does, but it's time to move forward.
CC will toss that first pitch, rightfully so. It's time to accept the changing of the guard.
Respect your opinion, but think this:
What if Sabathia blows out his knee on April 22 and eventually goes down in history as the worst acquisiton ever?
With Andy, at least we have somebody with a legacy.
I agree with duque.
We need and I want Andy back.
But if he doesnt come back Im going to hate his guts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/sports/baseball/06yanks.html?_r=2&ref=sports
Nice job, duque.
Duque,
Believe me, I hear ya. I love Pettitte's legacy.
I know everyone has the right to ask for the last dollar they feel they are worth (waiting to speak with my boss today, as a matter of fact), but Andy is not a $16m/year pitcher any more. He might not even be a $10m/yr in this market.
If he wants to take his ball and glove and call it a career over a million --a million he'll never spend-- so be it.
The one thing the Yanks have gotten trouble with over the last decade is their excessive sentimentality. You see the Sox able to cut bait with their "heroes" like Pedro, Damon, Lowe, and now maybe Varitek. Why can't we just say to Andy: "We'd LOVE to have you back, but this is our offer, one we think is commesurate with your recent performance levels." If he doesn't want it, we'll cheer him like mad at Old Timer's Day.
And yes, if CC blows out his knee, that's be, um, bad. Of course, Pettitte wouldn't help that! ;)
Good work here, Duque, whether we see eye to eye on this particular issue.
Jason,
Again, I appreciate your thoughts. I'm basically with ya.
But, man, that letter wasn't to you.
It's to Andy.
ed
An Open Comment to Andy Pettitte:
(All others, look away. This is none of your frickin business. It's between me and Andy.)
Sign the contract, and I'll personally bring Jason@IIATMS to your door in a dog collar, and he will wash your feet.
woof!
Hit the nail right on the head, Duque. Well maybe except for the fact that it should be the f*****' contract, not the frickin' contract. What's the point of missing the new Stadium to squirrel away more money so your spawn never have to work??? And if that's Andy's motivation right now, does he really want to leave $10.5 million on the table??? We real, hardworking, 'will never see $10.5 million in my lifetime' people should have such problems.
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