You can talk about legacy, leadership, clubhouse glue and Hall of Fame credentials. But whatever you say, don't forget to mention that over the last month, during this team's last gasp for a post-season birth, Andy was our best starting pitcher. Our bullpen collapsed. He never let us down.
That 1989 void we're about to enter - the one that began when Alphonso Soriano got picked off second - it just got a little darker. God help us.
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Andy Pettitte's entire career has been an uncommon treat. I don't think his stuff was ever considered overwhelming, but he was always a very good pitcher and a good man. The three-year hole in the middle, when Cashman couldn't be bothered to show any enthusiasm for signing him because we had Kevin Brown or some such, says more about the Yankees' mismanagement than anything else.
Thank you, Andy Pettitte!
Let the record show that once again the Emperor has no clothes--Pettitte was a PED (HGH, that we know of) cheat, probably for at least ten years, and a liar about it to boot (only twice, teacher, I promise!).
How can we credit any of his achievements any more than we do those of Palmeiro, Bonds, McGwire, etc.?
Andy Pettite always seemed like a nice guy--but do did Ryan Braun, until he was unmasked as a cheat and a liar.
You can apply all the gauze of sentiment and nostalgia that you want to Pettitte, but he remains what he has been for at least the past decade: a cheat and a liar--and a Bible-thumping, sanctimonious one at that: the worst kind.
Every one used steroids in his day. The people who hit well had to be using steroids because every pitcher was using them.
I won't go as far as Anonymous, but I've always been a little nauseated by the Saint Andy worshippers. Remember, he's the guy who left us for Houston, idolized the slimy Roger Clemens, and saved Clemens' butt by changing his story at Clemens' trial. Not to mention that he retired the first time to "spend more time with his family," then apparently decided spending time with them wasn't as cool as road trips with his baseball brothers. Andy was an excellent pitcher, but no Saint.
Ah, the ubiquitous master prose stylist, Anonymous, enters again. Gotta ask. Any Yankees you respect at all? Keep taking the Prozac.
Well, IIHIIF inevitably attracts a troll or two. This one took courses on French literature and philosophy, and passed English 101. The style is evident but genuine substance is lacking, in other words another Ivy Leaguer Bosox fan. Keep feeding him and he may stay around to amuse us. Could be worse. You could be married to him.
Andy won me over in 96 against the Braves in the WS. Fantastic pitcher. The Jesus stuff creeps me out and the PED thing is just horse manure. And when does everyone wake up and realize that PEDs like HGH don't actually E your P? They help you heal faster, which is why Andy used it. I still don't get why that's evil but antibiotics and Lotrimin aren't. People who care about that enough to call someone a "cheater" need to get a life, or at least stop being such eager believers in MLB's definition of what's good and bad.
I'll miss Pettitte. A great pitcher, a great pickoff move, a great cold stare over his mitt when getting the sign from the catcher. No saint, but HOF material.
Andy won me over in 96 against the Braves in the WS. Fantastic pitcher. The Jesus stuff creeps me out and the PED thing is just horse manure. And when does everyone wake up and realize that PEDs like HGH don't actually E your P? They help you heal faster, which is why Andy used it. I still don't get why that's evil but antibiotics and Lotrimin aren't. People who care about that enough to call someone a "cheater" need to get a life, or at least stop being such eager believers in MLB's definition of what's good and bad.
I'll miss Pettitte. A great pitcher, a great pickoff move, a great cold stare over his mitt when getting the sign from the catcher. No saint, but HOF material.
Andy won me over in 96 against the Braves in the WS. Fantastic pitcher. The Jesus stuff creeps me out and the PED thing is just horse manure. And when does everyone wake up and realize that PEDs like HGH don't actually E your P? They help you heal faster, which is why Andy used it. I still don't get why that's evil but antibiotics and Lotrimin aren't. People who care about that enough to call someone a "cheater" need to get a life, or at least stop being such eager believers in MLB's definition of what's good and bad.
I'll miss Pettitte. A great pitcher, a great pickoff move, a great cold stare over his mitt when getting the sign from the catcher. No saint, but HOF material.
People can hurl personal mud all day long and then pose as superior to their victim--I wonder if they're perceptive enough to grasp the irony.
Instead of tossing grade-school barbs and taunts, why not address the issue for a change? Is Andy Pettitte a PED cheat or not? Is he a liar about this or not?
These are the only issues--and all the hissing and flaring about me can't disguise these key realities.
You want to change the subject from Andy Pettitte's frauds and hypocrisies? Perfectly understandable--but entirely beside the point.
He said he used human growth hormone. I took him at his word as to frequency and motive et al., but if you didn't I can't say that you are wrong. I'm not terribly worried about it, but if you are, good on you.
I continue to maintain that Pettitte is a very good pitcher and the sort of guy who was real easy to root for, regardless of his religious beliefs, which I don't share but never really thought that was something that determined whether I like the guy. Tough competitor, good pitcher. What more do you want?
These PED purists with all their absolutism remind me a little of prohibitionists. I think that is why I find them loathsome but also just a little bit frightening. Give me an earnest Christian any day.
Big fun at the Stadium tonight. Andy featured in all the little game the Yankees play with the crowd. The Homerun prompted an uproarious celebration from His fans and the delicious quieting of His Boo-ers. Mo was the old Mo. What a game!
was also great to watch C.C. start to learn how to pitch.
KD makes reference to "PED purists"--that's a broadbrush smear that evidently encompasses the entire legitimate medical community, which has established through extensive scientific investigation that PEDs can wreak havoc with the human mind and body, causing all manner of horrific behavioral and health problems.
Sports are supposed to be about promoting physical activity as a means of improving people's health, not destroying it. Now the big-money pressures are such that high school kids start pumping this junk into their bodies and continue through whatever level of ball they can compete in. It's a scandal, a triumph of greed over sanity and rational self-preservation--another symptom of America's unhinged money madness.
KD is not concerned. So much the worse for KD--he's lucky it's not his son whose life and health are ruined by this madness.
But he's evidently a loyal fan, so he just shoves his head in the sand and applauds all the fraud and dishonesty--I guess that's the new American way--but really the good old American way.
But Pettitte's character flaws do not end with his PED abuse and lying about the extent of it. His announcement today means that this Sunday--a game he will start--will end up being Andy Pettitte day, thus eclipsing spotlight that was supposed to be reserved--deservedly--for Mariano Rivera.
Not a pretty picture all the way around--and if you think you have to be a fan of some other team to smell the stench, then you need to have your olfactory nerves examined.
Anon feels a little defensive but he really shouldn't be. with the thinnest of soup this dude can prepare an entire meal. Bravo, Anon! What a talent for story telling and projection.
Now I must retire to lick my wounds and reconstruct my shattered ego. I hope I have enough Bourbon. No more troll sustenance from me.
'night all!
Hey, baby! No PEDs for me! But I will confess this: the LSD really helped me throw the no-hitter. Tune in, turn on, ground out!
KD speaks of "trolls" and "thin soup" and "licking wounds"--anything to divert attention from his witless callousness on the subject of PEDs; his sophomoric sarcasm is the waving of a white flag on the substance of the subject.
NEXT!
Let's see. We have crack addicts and meth heads killing children on public streets. And Anonymous wants to invoke the hue and cry against a pitcher who used a controlled substance to heal an injury, and when confronted about it said pitcher told the truth. Not only do you lack a sense of proportion, Anonymous, you genuinely seem oblivious to the relative nature of "evil". You'd make a damned good Grand Inquisitor, though. Not a drop of human compassion or moral scale. Confess- are you Bobby Valentine?
Dear AA--because AA is where you evidently belong--we also have Hitler's genocide, imminent global apocalypse, global starvation, and most of the world's resources being spent on tribal warfare rather than constructive works of peace and compassion. Does that mean we are debarred from expressing concern about every human evil or folly on a smaller scale? If a hungry stray cat crosses your path, do you make no effort to feed it? If you know of a child being violently or sexually abused by a parent, do you do nothing to try to stop it? If there is graft in your local government, do you turn your head? And if you know that American sports are being ravaged by a blight of powerful toxins that are taking a fearful toll on the mental and physical health of countless young athletes, do you curl your lip in indifference because it's not on the same scale as the Holocaust?
You can venture any kind of pretzel logic you want, but clearly you are simply rationalizing a destructive drug pandemic in professional sports because one of your personal idols has been caught with his pants down, getting needles shoved up his tuchis. So ipso facto, that can't be a serious concern because your idol is doing it.
This viewpoint evinces all the ethical maturity and seriousness of an eight-year-old.
When you go beddy-bye tonight, clutch your Andy bobblehead doll close to your chest while the world burns. The doll will ward off the flames from you and you alone.
Lupica gets this one exactly right:
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/lupica-pettitte-exits-hall-shamer-article-1.1463052
Performance-Enhancing Drugs--Know the Risks (from the Mayo Clinic):
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/performance-enhancing-drugs/HQ01105
I hope all the blithe PED know-nothings on this side will give this Mayo Clinic information a thorough reading and then offer thanks to the deity of their choice that one of their loved ones is not caught in the maws of one or more of these beasts.
Wow! Three furious posts in a mere 13 minutes. We ARE getting to you! And, yes, I AM in AA. Several of the guys on this blog are slowly working their way there, too. Honestly, Anonymous, your crack about AA is the most revealing thing you've yet said. I feel as if I am getting to know you, with some ambivalence however.
This Anonymous fellow, upon further review, is qualified to throw the first stone.
Gee AA--several "furious" posts of your own and not a peep about the Mayo clinic material on PEDs--which is, after all the main point. I guess you're not a very serious fellow--just out for blood sport, and all the poor slobs dying at 45 from PED abuse can just go fuck themselves because we love the way Andy Pettitte peeps out over his glove when taking a sign from the catcher. You really need to grow up.
Anonymous, turn the other cheek, buddy. You're without sin, remember? Utterly stainless and without guile. These creeps wish they could be just like YOU. Everyone wants to be you, even Pontius Pilate.
Absolutely. I could use a man like you in my office, stamping out heresy, disciplining the gladiators, splitting infinitives (we do write in Latin here, but what the hell when everybody else is speaking in Greek or Aramaic!). Give me a call, Anonymous. 1-800-P-E-R-S-E-C-U-T-E. SPQR is in hiring mode, regardless of the Affordable Care Act.
Lame "wit" and sophomoric sarcasm as desperate covers for intellectual cowardice. What a novelty! One sees this on the Internet only 5 million times a day. I guess these guys are not only devoid of basic knowledge but also even a glint of originality--just like the Yankee front office.
The irony, of course, is that the assembled ad hom lynch mob is the true Pontius Pilate--just another irony to get lost on the sweaty mob.
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