Wednesday, February 13, 2008

The Pettitte Depo Debunked

After reading through the 100 pages which comprise the Andy Pettitte deposition, you get a real sense for who the Yankee lefthander really is. Throughout his testimony, Pettitte was noticeably troubled with the mention of Roger Clemens' name, but his desire to tell the truth was just as evident. According to Pettitte, he and Clemens never discussed any PED use. However, Brian McNamee would vent about Roger's drug-use to Pettitte.

When the Jason Grimsley report leaked, Pettitte says in the deposition that he wanted to come clean and told McNamee he planned to. However, McNamee asked him to keep his name out of his admission which Pettitte knew was impossible. As a result, Pettitte did not confess his three days of HGH use, protecting his trainer and others around him.

If you really want to know Pettitte better, I recommend reading his entire deposition, but I have cut and paste a handful of telling excerpts from the report:

Q: And why did you stop after the four injections?

A: I just -- I did feel uncomfortable with it. I felt really that's it. I can't explain any better than that, just knowing if you've ever been somewhere and you don't feel right about it, so you just leave. I mean I just didn't feel right about it. I don't know. It was because -- every time, you know, before any injections I'd ever had had been administered to me by a team doctor or you know a trainer. And you know, just didn't feel comfortable with, you know, him doing that.

And on why McNamee tried to dissuade Pettitte from using HGH to return from injury:

A: Yeah. He discouraged me from doing it.

Q: Why? What did he tell you?

A: I mean, he told me that he knows what kind of person I am. He knows -- I mean, I'm a Christian man. I try to live my life a certain way. And he told me that he did not think that I would feel comfortable doing it once I did it. I definitely listened to what he had to say.

Pettitte's reasoning for trying HGH:

I felt like it was the right thing to do. I was making an awful lot of money. I wanted to give back to the team. I had been on the DL before. But I knew I had hurt my elbow pretty bad this time. I was on there for an extended period of time, where before with my elbow I'd only missed a couple of weeks. But I knew that I was missing some extended period of time there. And I just felt like that it was the honorable thing to do, if I could do whatever I could to try to get back on the field and try to earn my money. I just told him I think that I ought to do it. And so that's why he agreed to do it.

Q: Did it help? I mean, was it effective for your elbow?

A: I mean, I don't think so just because I think you have to take the stuff for an extended period of time. And you know, I don't believe it did.

According to the deposition, Pettitte had previously attempted to stop his father from using HGH at his mother's behest. Within the transcript Pettitte cites his father's involvement as the major reason for his exclusion from the public hearing explaining "it would be a very uncomfortable situation for me to try to talk about [my dad's involvement] in front of the whole world."

He then discussed his second and final use of HGH - though it is important to understand Pettitte's father had had numerous open heart surgeries and had been taking HGH to help his recovery:

Again, I was on the DL. First start of the season with the Houston Astros in '04 I check swung, very first at-bat, and I popped my tendon in my elbow. My flexor tendon. The next day I had an MRI, found out I needed to have surgery and decided not to have the surgery, you know, they recommended that I have surgery. But I just signed a $30 million contract with the Astros. My first start with the hometown team and I was like, there's no way I'm going out like this. So got a few cortisone injections into my elbow that year through the team doctor to try to help me get back. I came back off the DL after trying to rehab it. Went back on the DL. Had to miss a start here and there.

Through all this I was getting Toradol injections, which was a painkiller that you get, you know, so I could just deal with the pain when I was making my starts. And the team doctors were administering that and the trainers for the Astros. And anyhow, just ended up going back to my dad. We were just having a conversation. I had asked my dad if he had had any of the HGH that he had had before. He ended up bringing me two syringes over to my house. And you know, I injected myself once in the morning and once at night. He had brought two syringes over. That's what he brought over to my house. You know, that's the best that he recalls also that he had brought two syringes over. And that was it. I did it that time. I did it for that day. And to this day, I don't know why, it doesn't make a whole lot -- heck of a lot of sense. I knew -- I think that's probably why I didn't continue to pursue it. I did it. I was desperate and you know I really knew that it wasn't going to help me. My flexor tendon was already torn. I knew I needed surgery. I would just say just out of desperation I tried to do it again. But that was the extent of it.

And when I took HGH both times, it was not banned from Major League Baseball. If it was, I would have never taken it.

When Pettitte talks about pitching through a torn elbow tendon it makes me wince. Some of these professional athletes are pampered - there are many others, however, who are anything but.

According to several reports, Pettitte will be given an extra three days before arriving in Spring training camp on Monday - pitchers and catchers officially report tomorrow.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

pettitte shows the difference between right and wrong (clemens)