Dear Congressman Waxman, Andy Pettitte is Not a Hero

Let's stop with this whole Andy Pettitte is a hero nonsense. He is not hero. He is a baseball player that, for all intensive purposes, cheated in profession to gain an advantage that may have cost other individuals a fair shot a career in the game they love. He kept a secret from baseball in the mist of one of its greatest dilemmas in the history of the sport. And he didn't come forth with the truth until the truth was put in front of his face.

However, some people in House of Representatives would lead you to believe otherwise.

At the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on steroids on February 13, 2008, the problem at hand was whether Roger Clemens did or did not use steroids. In other words, was Brian McNamee telling the truth about injecting Clemens with steroids and HGH?

But both Clemens and McNamee presented entirely different stories, if you were asked to make a decision as to what the truth was from listening to just them, you couldn't.

In comes Andy Pettitte's testimony. In it, Pettitte admits to having done HGH on several different accounts, including accounts for which have not been brought against him, and of course, he says that Clemens told him he had used HGH. Pettitte has no reason to lie, his facts are in line with the McNamee, and he even has an account from his wife testifying to Pettitte's remembrance of his conversation with Clemens about steroids/HGH.

Now that's all fine and dandy, and in my opinion, and the opinion of most people, that is the most damning piece of evidence against Clemens that suggest Clemens is lying about having used steroids/HGH.

However, let's not mistake the credibility of Pettitte's statement with the fact that he is a hero. Henry Waxman, the head of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, stated in his comments that he thought Pettitte was a hero. Representative Elijah Cummings said that he found Pettitte to be a "religious" and "honest" individual. And several other members used Clemens own words to try and illustrate just how much of a reliable person Pettitte is.

But Pettitte is not all of those things, and through this process, I don't really see how those Congresspersons could come to that conclusion. Consider that over the last couple of months, Pettitte was outed as an HGH user. And because of impending public humiliation, ridicule, and criticism, not his own forthcomingness, he surrendered to the pressure and admitted to having used HGH, but only the occasions for which he was accused of. It wasn't until later, when brought under oath, that he admitted to having used it one more time. And even to that extent, it's still hard to believe that he has admitted the full extent to which he used HGH, because there is no way you can see any benefits from HGH with 1 or 2 individual shots like that. On top of it all, he has clearly used religion to strengthen his testimony, which doesn't take away from the testimony, but clearly shows that his intentions in coming forward are partially to make himself look better. The other part is that he clearly fears punishment, which he alluded to in his statement that he is coming forth for fear of having to answer to God, and obviously the fact that he could be charged with perjury here on earth should he be found dishonest.

So I'm not exactly sure how Rep. Henry Waxman, and many of the members of the House, came to the conclusion that Pettitte is some sort of hero. He is not that. He is a cheater, a liar, and a rat. You may have a problem with all of those descriptions of him, you may not have a problem with any of them, but you have to admit, he fell short of Sainthood somewhere between the Mitchell Report and ducking out on the Congressional Hearings.