The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com
February 3, 2011
(Barton Silverman/The New York Times)Andy Pettitte before Game 3 of last year’s American League division series against the Twins. His postseason record was 19-10 with a 3.83 earned run average.
Free agency is supposed to be the ultimate perk for a player, the chance to choose where to make your next fortune. Andy Pettitte hated it. He never wanted to let people down.
But then, Pettitte was always a little different, so sincere in his eagerness to please. He retired on Thursday after 16 seasons, all but three with the Yankees. He will hold a news conference at Yankee Stadium on Friday morning for the formal announcement. Knowing Pettitte, there will be tears.
Pettitte told the Yankees when the off-season started that they should not count on him to return. But he waited more than three months to make it official, suggesting the decision was hard. Pettitte lives in Deer Park, Tex., with his wife and four children, but staying there means disappointing the Yankees, who desperately wanted him — needed him — for their thin rotation. Surely that has gnawed at him.
Pettitte left the Yankees once before, after the 2003 season, when he chose his hometown Houston Astros as a free agent. The Yankees had made a lukewarm pursuit, but Pettitte still agonized over leaving. More than most, he recognized the downside of his decisions and performances. And he knew the inherent physical risks of his job.
The threat of a major elbow injury haunted Pettitte, who has said it was always in the back of his mind. Three times in his career, he was placed on the disabled list with elbow problems. Twice, he has acknowledged, he used human growth hormone to speed his recovery.
As it turned out, a groin injury ultimately knocked out Pettitte last season, spoiling an All-Star summer. He made one start after the break, left in the third inning and missed the next two months. The idea that he might have to repeat the tedium of rehabilitation could not have been enticing for Pettitte. He turns 39 in June and knows he could always be injured again.
(Suzy Allman for The New York Times)Andy Pettitte starred for the Yankees for 13 seasons. “He’s a special guy,” General Manager Brian Cashman said.
Brian Cashman, the Yankees’ general manager, doubted all along that Pettitte would return. But Pettitte was always welcome, because his arm is still sound. He was 11-3 last season, and his 3.28 earned run average was his best since 2005. And while Cashman can be bloodless with Yankee player royalty — the bitter parting with Bernie Williams comes to mind — he understood what Pettitte means.
“He’s a special guy,” Cashman said last week. “I think the bottom line is that people don’t want to let him go.”
That is especially true now, with the Yankees’ patchwork rotation. They could not sign Cliff Lee, who took a lesser offer from the Philadelphia Phillies, and will choose from Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia, Sergio Mitre and Ivan Nova for the last two spots in their rotation.
The Yankees would have given Pettitte perhaps $12 million or more to return. But he has made more than $125 million in his career, and it is hard to believe money matters much to him now.
Likewise, Pettitte has never seemed to care about building Hall of Fame credentials. His case is borderline. Voters would have to emphasize his postseason impact and his win/loss record, while playing down his H.G.H. admission, his E.R.A. (3.88, which would be the highest in Cooperstown), and his relatively low ranking in wins above replacement, where he places below Dave Stieb and Rick Reuschel, neither of whom is in Cooperstown.
Still, only seven others can match Pettitte for victories (240) and winning percentage (.635). They are Christy Mathewson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Lefty Grove, Jim Palmer, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina. It is an impressive group, despite one complicated name.
That would be Clemens, Pettitte’s former workout partner and guru. Pettitte’s coming calendar includes an uncomfortable distraction in July, when Clemens’s perjury trial is scheduled to begin in Washington. Prosecutors plan to call Pettitte as a witness against Clemens, who has denied using performance-enhancing drugs.
Pettitte’s entanglement with Clemens and their former trainer, Brian McNamee, is a sticky part of his legacy. More important to Yankees fans are his five championship rings and reputation for coming through in the clutch.
(Al Bello/Getty Images)Pettitte with, from left, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter in 2008 after the last regular-season game at the old Yankee Stadium
In that way, Pettitte is a lot like Derek Jeter: he played so many postseason games that his October performance mirrors his play in the regular season. Pettitte was 19-10 with a 3.83 E.R.A. in the postseason, a few clunkers mixed in with the classics.
The effort that might resonate most was not especially pretty. It was a rainy Halloween night in Philadelphia, after the Yankees and the Phillies had split the first two games of the 2009 World Series. The Phillies blitzed Pettitte for three runs in the second inning: a homer, a double, a bunt single, a bases-loaded walk to Jimmy Rollins. Pettitte was scrambling, yet somehow, he found a way.
Pettitte toyed with the Phillies’ left-handed hitters, and overcame an error, another home run and three walks. He even smacked a curveball for the game-tying single off Cole Hamels, and scored the go-ahead run. He lasted six innings and won.
It was tempting to think Pettitte’s experience helped him, willing him through a game he had no business winning. But that was not quite right.
“It’s hard to draw on, you know, past success or whatever, when you’re standing out on that mound and the ball is not going where you want it to,” Pettitte said after the game. “When Jimmy was up there, I was trying to throw the ball on the outside corner, and it just wasn’t going there. You know, it’s a grind when you’re out there and you’re by yourself. There’s not a whole lot of anything that can help you.”
The only thing to do, Pettitte said, was to keep battling, keep searching, keep trying. It was a simple game plan for an earnest man who knew how to execute it over and over. It is probably how Pettitte would like to be remembered.
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