TAMPA – If the Department of Justice drags Andy Pettitte into a possible perjury case against Roger Clemens, Hank Steinbrenner is going to be ticked off.
“We will see what happens, but I will not be pleased if they put Andy through the ringer again,” Steinbrenner told The Post yesterday via phone from the family’s horse farm in Ocala, where he was visiting a long-time employee who is ill. “He did what he had to do, that’s the bottom line.”
Pettitte, who admitted to using human growh horomone two days after his name surfaced in the Dec. 13 Mitchell Report, copped to using it again in a sworn deposition before Congress on Feb. 4 that wasn’t favorable to Clemens because Pettitte recalled a conversation about HGH with his workout partner and former teammate. On Feb. 13, Clemens told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that Pettitte might have “misremembered” details of the conversation.
Like many Yankees fans, Steinbrenner has had a bellyful of HGH and has grown weary of hearing about Clemens and Brian McNamee, a trainer who worked with Clemens and Pettitte.
“I haven’t seen any reports on the latest, but I figured it was going to happen like a lot of people,” Steinbrenner said. “We are going to try to make it as easy as possible on Andy. As for Clemens and McNamee, I don’t give a [hoot] about that. I have more important things to take care of than what the government does.”
Though Steinbrenner doesn’t want Pettitte’s season interrupted or distracted, that would likely be out of the pitcher’s hands if Clemens’ case goes to a grand jury. On Feb. 18, Pettitte’s lawyers practically predicted it would.
“As much as we don’t want to see it, there is a very good likelihood that he may be required to testify again either in a defamation lawsuit (Clemens against McNamee) or if there is a grand jury proceeding in that,” Thomas Farrell said.
Pettitte told The Post he wasn’t aware of the latest development in a saga that isn’t close to ending. Nor did he elaborate on it when the cliff notes were given to him.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Pettitte said when asked if Clemens possibly facing a grand jury made him feel better about telling the truth. “I don’t feel good about anything.”
Pettitte, who said he hasn’t talked to Clemens in six weeks, has been happy to get back on the mound, where he admits to being behind the other pitchers because of an offseason talking to lawyers and politicians more than keeping his structured workout program together.
“People don’t realize the amount of stress that was involved,” Pettitte said.
On the day Pettitte reported to camp, Farrell was asked what affect would an indictment of Clemens have on Pettitte during the upcoming season, and the lawyer said the glacial speed of the courts would help.
“The legal system moves very slowly,” Farrell said. “If that comes about, it well could be after the World Series.”
Yet, what if the legal system loses the ankle weights and speeds the process? What happens if Pettitte has to leave the team and huddle with lawyers or give more depositions in Washington?
Pettitte has already admitted the fractured winter extracted a toll on him. The stress of having an impending subpoena hanging over his head surely won’t help. Then there are the Yankees, who gave Pettitte $16 million before his name was included in the Mitchell Report. He is their No. 2 starter and not that far removed from ace status. Losing Pettitte or having a distracted Pettitte would add another colossal question mark for a unit that already is loaded with them.