TAMPA – Andy Pettitte – his friends, teammates and employers insist – is coming to Steinbrenner Field this afternoon to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
He better be.
It is his only salvation now. This cannot be another moment when Pettitte lies or tells just part of his tale about performance enhancing drugs. He has tried that up until now and dinged up his reputation nearly as much with dishonesty and evasions as he has with HGH.
The quick HGH scorecard on Pettitte is this: He told us for years he had never touched the stuff. Then, after the Mitchell Report named him as a user, Pettitte acknowledged that, yes, it was true, but vowed it was only on two occasions in 2002. Then when it appeared an investigation might publicly reveal that his father got him some more HGH to use in 2004, Pettitte was suddenly informing Congress about more injections.
So the chain of events is a long period of lies, followed by a half-truth married to a lie and now what the Pettitte camp says is the full, unadulterated version of this drug tale.
“I believe this is it,” Joe Girardi said. “My thought is Andy has told everything that there is.”
If that is accurate, then Pettitte should be on the road to fine. This country – in general – rewards forthright confession with outright redemption as long as the transgression is not particularly heinous. Pettitte, for example, should expect far worse than rose petals hurled in his direction at Fenway Park. But much of America will move on from this story as long as there are not more repugnant sequels.
So this press conference today is important for Pettitte. He is expected to be accompanied by a lawyer, yet there supposedly will be no restrictions on the type of questions and no time limit.
His ground rule will be that he will respond to every question from what is expected to be nearly 200 media members, and then not discuss the matter again publicly.
The only chance this strategy has to work is if Pettitte is being completely forthright now. So Pettitte cannot unfurl this latest version of his tale today, and sometime in the near future have more sordid details arise. He cannot suddenly remember two more HGH injections or have a slip of paper surface connecting his signature to a shipment of Winstrol or have McNamee come forward with a few photos showing Pettitte shooting up.
Pettitte cannot win his reputation back all in one day, but he can pretty much lose it forever if he is still lying about the extent of his use of illegal performance enhancers.
For now, Pettitte can weave a story that is understandable, if regrettable. He was just like a whole generation of players who lied to cover up their usage. He withheld his 2004 HGH dalliance out of desperation to protect his father’s reputation. He is claiming just HGH injections (no hard-core steroids) coinciding with periods when he was frantic to get his pained elbow healthy. He can distinguish between himself and someone, say, like Jason Giambi who was a habitual, long-term user whose best seasons occurred while he was juicing.
If he really only used on three days in his life, he can ask whether a 13-year career should be defined by those three days. You would not describe a person who smoked marijuana on three days as a pothead.
It helps Pettitte that most folks really want to see the best for him. It is stunning how many people around the Yankees still describe him as “honest.” Brian Cashman said, “whatever has taken place, Andy is still a good man.”
Cashman and Girardi will be standing next to Pettitte at this press conference. The Yanks never considered having senior team members who know the lefty well such as Derek Jeter, Mike Mussina, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera positioned behind him in support.
“We are going to be standing with him if we are there physically or not,” Mussina said. “And he knows that.”
Here is the key element that Pettitte should now. Today could be the first day of the rest of his career.
Or he can bury his reputation for good by misremembering the whole truth.