Defensive Indifference

He should probably patent this series of public relations moves before he’s out of baseball. After admitting that he used human growth hormone (but only for two days guys!) following the release of the Mitchell Report, Andy Pettitte went to church with the chil’ren like a good Christian.

Blech.

Look, I’m not saying Pettitte’s story isn’t plausible and I’ll willingly admit that I’m pretty jaded, but while everyone in New York rushes to laud him for owning up to his past transgressions, I can’t get the bad taste out of my mouth.

For starters, as Jayson Stark points out, Pettitte essentially stole his story (I used but only to get back to my team and only for a brief time) from Patriots safety Rodney Harrison. And it looks like he isn’t the only one who thought Harrison’s spin was pretty good as Fernando Vina followed suit today with his own version of the ‘I was just trying to recover’ story. I’m willing to accept that HGH has become part of the culture of baseball clubhouses. I’m also willing to accept that many of the players believe it can aid recovery. But when the busted continue to use the same excuse over and over, it becomes tired and difficult to believe. Think about how meaningless the ‘my trainer gave me a supplement and I don’t know what was in it’ excuse has become even when it could be true in some cases.

And while we’re on the subject, Pettitte is taking what’s perceived as the moral high ground by saying “I felt an obligation to get back to my team,” but is this really any better than taking steroids to improve performance. I mean weren’t there plenty of guys on the disabled list who would have loved to get back to their teams sooner, but didn’t cross the PED line. It’s just as unfair to the players who stayed clean while watching Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire launch moonshot after moonshot.

(And for the record, there isn’t much evidence that HGH aids rapid recovery.)

Pettitte barely even apologized in the first place, saying “if what I did was an error in judgment on my part, I apologize.” If? If what you did was an error in judgment? Holy Giambi-esque non-apology, Batman! Does he really not know what he did was a major breach of ethics? No. He’s simply put the spin machine into overdrive. A smarter maneuver than the flat denial issued by buddy Roger Clemens, sure, but one that’s just as disingenuous.

And now he’s finding his eighth gear by posing for photo-ops outside his church and posturing as the remorseful God-fearing man. I mean, if this was such a great penance to carry around — this perhaps-transgression — then why did he wait until after the Mitchell Report to “come clean” about his bump in the road.

Call me jaded or pessimistic if you want. I probably am. Everybody’s in a rush to forgive Pettitte, probably because he’s way more likable than Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens, but his PR moves in the wake of this scandal seem just as hollow as Clemens’ empty denial and even more cold and calculated.

Maybe this is asking too much of today’s media-coached athletes, but would it kill one of these PED abusers to come out and just admit that they took the stuff to gain a competitive edge and they took it just to keep up with the large number of other ballplayers using the stuff, instead of spouting some “good” excuse for cheating. At least that’d be honest. Clearly there’s been enough deception already.