Roger Clemens might have a different take on Andy Pettitte come July but other former teammates gushed yesterday about the opportunity to play with the stud left-hander who retired yesterday with a 240-138 record and the most wins (19) and starts (42) in the postseason.
“It’s been a pleasure to play with Andy for all these years, and the Yankees have been fortunate to have him representing the organization both on and off the field,” captain Derek Jeter said. “More importantly it’s been an honor to get to know him as a person, and I consider him family. I wish for nothing but happiness for him and his family, as I know how important they are to him.”
Mariano Rivera remembered Pettitte for the success.
“Andy was a great teammate and a wonderful guy,” Rivera said. “He was a fighter and all about winning, and he was respected by every person in the clubhouse.”
Joe Torre always praised Pettitte when he managed him and that didn’t change yesterday.
“Andy took the ball every five days, and if he had it his way, he’d get it more often than that,” Torre said. “What’s really unusual about him is that a lot of times pitchers are more consumed with themselves. Andy was probably the consummate team player, especially for a pitcher. He was so concerned not only about the day he pitched but he always had his arm around a young guy in between starts.
“He’s been a huge favorite of mine because he’s such a stand up guy, and he hasn’t changed from Day 1,” he said. “He’s a great teammate, and I think that’s why he won so many games. The guys that play behind him understand how intense he is, and it becomes contagious.”
Torre also said Pettitte was one of the key reasons the Yankees won four World Series titles in five years.
“I think the impact he had on the teams we had in the mid-to-late 1990’s was enormous even though he was never the guy in the spotlight,” he said. “He liked the fact that he wasn’t the No. 1 guy, even though I trusted him like a No. 1 guy. But he didn’t have an ego that dictated he needed all that attention.
“He did a great job of channeling his energy into competing, and he was about as consistent a performer as anybody in terms of getting your money’s worth,” Torre said. “He glued our staff together. When you’re performing with the same people year-in and year-out, it’s always nice to have that security blanket. He was certainly that guy on the pitching staff.”
David Cone might have said it best when it came to knowing Pettitte.
“If you don’t like Andy Pettitte there is something wrong with you,” Cone said. “He was the most intense competitor I knew and was always prepared.”
Often asked whom he wanted to start Game 7 of the World Series, Tino Martinez could pick from a galaxy of star hurlers as teammates. Yet, the answer was easy for the former Yankees first baseman.
“I always said Andy because he was always so prepared for every outing,” said Martinez, a Yankee teammate of big-game pitchers David Wells, Randy Johnson, Clemens and Cone. “He was fearless on the mound. He didn’t have overpowering stuff but he knew how to get guys out. He wanted to go nine every game because he wanted to save the bullpen.”
According to Johnny Damon, Pettitte changed the way lefty pitchers attacked lefty hitters.
“I would much rather have seen the cutter because you saw the ball better, but that sinker [inside] he developed was very tough on lefties,” said Damon, a teammate and foe of Pettitte. “When he started that, other left-handed pitchers started throwing that way. All in all, he helped left-handed pitchers pitch to left-handed batters.”
Damon played in Boston with Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling and with CC Sabathia and Johnson in The Bronx, so he knows an elite arm.
And Damon ranks Pettitte in that class.
“He is one of the best pitchers of all time,” Damon said. “He was a big reason I was able to get my second ring. He knew how to pitch. It’s easy to say he could be a Hall of Famer if he played a couple of more years.”
Paul O’Neill can’t forget Game 5 of the 1996 World Series when Pettitte beat the Braves, 1-0.
“That game was as good a pitching performance as I remember,” O’Neill said of Pettitte’s 8 1/3 shutout innings against John Smoltz. “That game immediately comes to mind.”
Jim Leyritz, who caught the majority of Pettitte’s starts in 1996, recalled Pettitte’s intensity in an odd way.
“Halfway through the 1996 season against Seattle at home, Andy walked six guys in three innings,” Leyritz said. “I was sitting next to [pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre] in the dugout and Andy walked by and said to me, ‘Quit walking people.’ He believed the catcher was just as big a part as he was. He was the pitching version of Paul O’Neill. He wanted to be perfect all of the time.”
To Willie Randolph, Pettitte was a security blanket.
“When he was pitching and walking into the ballpark you knew you had a chance to win because he was locked in,” the former Yankees’ bench coach said. “You appreciated the way he went about his business. He felt it was his responsibility to put the team on his shoulders. There was a lot on his plate because he pitched a lot of big games for us and always gave you a solid chance to win.”
None of those who talked yesterday were stunned Pettitte retired.
“I am not surprised at all, but I am sure it was still a tough decision because he waited this long,” Martinez said.
“He had been talking about it for years,” O’Neill said. “You get to the point where other things are important. It used to be that players played until they tore the uniform off your back. But now the money is so good you can leave on your terms.”