Andy Pettitte can spare us the crocodile tears and contrived 'regret'

A little over a year ago, it was reported in the Los Angeles Times
that a former Yankee pitcher named Jason Grimsley had accused some
major-league players of using performance-enhancing drugs in a federal
agent's affidavit. One of the players named in the Times story was Andy
Pettitte, who was about to finish his last season with the Houston
Astros.

When asked about the story at the time, here is what Andy Pettitte,
who now says he has worked hard his entire life to do things the right
way, said: "I've never used any drugs to enhance my performance in
baseball. I don't know what to say except that it's embarrassing that
my name would be out there."

Now Pettitte's name is out there - for using human growth hormone -
in former Sen. George Mitchell's report. Two days after Mitchell
releases that report to the public, a report that has Pettitte getting
HGH from personal trainer Brian McNamee and using it for two to four
days, Pettitte issues a statement, throws himself on the mercy of the
public and cops to two.

So Pettitte essentially cops to half of what the report said he did.
In a way that really sounds half-something-else. This really is an
absolute classic sports apology, the kind where somebody says that if
he offended somebody he's sorry, when the only thing he's really sorry
about is getting caught.

This wasn't from Pettitte's heart Saturday, it was from the lawyers
and agents, with more addendums than Mitchell had in the report that
brought Andy Pettitte to this moment.

Maybe, using Pettitte's logic, using human growth hormone to rehab
faster from a sore elbow doesn't mean you were looking to enhance your
performance. We really are getting a lot of that these days.

The real truth is that he got these drugs from McNamee, drugs he
never could have gotten from a legitimate doctor for an elbow injury,
and when people find out about it five years later, Pettitte expects
everybody to believe he was just doing it for his school.

He wants to come across as a standup guy here. Instead he looks like
somebody in a boxer's crouch, covering up so he doesn't get hit
anymore, doesn't get lumped in with all the other cheap, dirty drug
users named in George Mitchell's report.

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