Pettitte "came clean" today about his HGH use. Well, he admitted that he used HGH twice while rehabbing before deeming it immoral and stopping. Other than the convenience of the story, and the fact that Pettitte apparently didn't think HGH use was immoral when he spent the thousands of dollars to buy it on the black market without a prescription, I find his admission a little hard to swallow.
First of all, Pettitte only made such a statement after consulting with his attorney. When the Mitchell Report was first released, there was no such admission from Pettitte. Rather, his agent issued a statement saying, “I have advised Andy that as an active player, he should refrain from commenting until we have had an opportunity to speak with his union and other advisors. At the appropriate time, he will have something to say.”
To commend Petittte for his "honesty" is rather naive. Before being caught red handed, Pettitte denied any use of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED's). In fact, when first implicated by Jason Grimsley in 2006, Pettitte stated, "I guess reports are saying I've used performance enhancing drugs. I've never used any drugs to enhance my performance in baseball. I don't know what else to say except to say it's embarrassing my name would be out there."
And even now, Pettitte doesn't admit to any wrongdoing. Pettitte incorrectly states that what he did was "not against baseball rules." As the Mitchell Report clearly states, "Many have asserted that steroids and other performance enhancing substances were not banned in Major League Baseball before the 2002 Basic Agreement. This is not accurate. Beginning in 1971 and continuing today, Major League Baseball’s drug policy has prohibited the use of any prescription medication without a valid prescription."
Pettitte continues by saying, "if what I did was an error in judgment, I apologize." If? Did he not break the rules of Major League Baseball? Did he not attempt to exploit an unfair advantage to recover more quickly from injury than other major leaguers could?
Now, I've always considered Pettitte to be a classy, respectable guy. But his conduct, and his "admission" are embarrassing. And given the level of dishonesty, and lack of good judgment he's displayed in the past, I would not be at all surprised if he used PED's more than he's admitting to.
