Pettitte was rightly ashamed of the spectacle of calling his friend Roger Clemens a liar on national TV. I can understand that but I have -- increasingly -- no sympathy for his situation. Andy did not come forward and "man up" to cheating. He was caught and if he lied about it he would face prison. Under those circumstances it is not admirable or brave or good to tell the truth. It is prudent and smart. Admit the truth and avoid jail. But his attitude throughout this has been far less than I expected from a player I respected so much. First and foremost and above everything else, Andy Pettitte was a mutlimillionare, lauded, rich for life, four-ring wearing superstar who CHEATED to gain more glory for himself. Let's not forget that. It may have been cheating in a quick, easy way that he knew would mean he would not get caught on drug testing, which hardly makes it more admirable. But everyone makes mistakes. But since he got caught, Pettitte has been defensive and angry and filled with juicy rationalizations. I can't look into his conscience but it seems clear Pettitte has not made a true confession and is looking for genuine forgiveness. You don't try and downplay your sin if you are truly sorry. Manning up would have been to say, "I cheated, I was wrong, I should never have done it, I did it in a way that would avoid getting caught on the drug tests, there was no justification for doing it and I beg kids not to risk their health in order to gain an edge on their opponents by cheating. It may injure or kill them and it WILL taint everything they have ever accomplished. They will never know what they might have done if they had been honest and they will also know that whatever they did accomplish was cheapened."
Pettitte doesn't want to forthrightly answer questions abot what he did because Roger is pissed at him for telling the truth. Tough. Is that the message to send to kids? Confess in secret, hide in public and never publicly take the punishment you deserve? Cause it will embarrass a fellow cheat?
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2 comments:
Isn't life lonely on that ivory tower?
I don't blame Andy for not wanting to be part of tomorrow's circus. If he told the truth last week, that's good enough for me. I don't need Andy, Giambi, Rodney Harrison or any other athlete/user to do PSAs about PEDs any more than I need Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden to tell me the crack is whack.
**** Thank you for finally posting something on this site.
I feel less hard on Andy since I now know that Roger and Brian were both told they didn't need to testify either but that Roger's people insisted he do so. Puts it in a new light for me.
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