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Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens: A friendship under strain

By David Freedlander, amNewYork Staff Writer
More stories | dfreedlander@am-ny.com

February 19, 2008

Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens are best buddies, but in the public eye, they couldn't be more different.

Monday, for the first time during baseball's ugly winter of juice use, lies and taped phone calls, Pettitte faced down the media, apologizing for using human growth hormone and admitting that after his Congressional testimony regarding Clemens, their friendship has been strained.

Unlike Clemens, who exhibits a quick temper on the field and who has been vocally batting down allegations of steroid use, Pettitte, a longtime darling of Yankee fans, not only has admitted using HGH but spoke about his ordeal in his usual unassuming way, bringing up family and religion as his inspiration in recent weeks.

"Yankee fans don't care about HGH, they care about quality wins," said Joe McDonald, managing editor of New York Sportscene, an online magazine. "Besides, compared to Roger Clemens he comes out smelling like a rose," McDonald said.

"Andy was right to tell," said baseball fan, Patrick Mullins, 58, of Brooklyn. "If someone commits a crime, shouldn't you tell on them? If they are making that much money, they should follow the rules."

Despite Pettitte's public apology to fans yesterday, not all were willing to forgive and forget.

"Andy Pettitte is a snitch, and he's a very bad friend," said David Scott, 27, from Harlem. "I'm not going to throw popcorn or anything, but I am definitely not an Andy Pettitte fan anymore."

Last month, Clemens publicly aired a phone conversation with trainer Brian McNamee that the hurler secretly taped. McNamee testified to the Mitchell Report and Congress that he shot up both pitchers with HGH.

Some wish that Congress never got involved and that the news about baseball went back to being about balls and strikes, wins and losses.

"There is so much wrong in the country right now, that to see Congress get involved in this it boggles the mind," said Dave Zirin, author of "Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports."

Laura Berger contributed to this story.