Andy Pettitte released a statement through his agent this afternoon, regarding being named in the Mitchell Report.
From Ben Walker:
"In 2002 I was injured. I had heard that human growth hormone could promote faster healing for my elbow," Pettitte said in the statement released to The Associated Press by agent Randy Hendricks.
"I felt an obligation to get back to my team as soon as possible. For this reason, and only this reason, for two days I tried human growth hormone. Though it was not against baseball rules, I was not comfortable with what I was doing, so I stopped.
"This is it — two days out of my life; two days out of my entire career, when I was injured and on the disabled list," he said. "I wasn't looking for an edge. I was looking to heal."
Pettitte was not linked to steroids in the report, and he emphasized he never had never used them.
"I have the utmost respect for baseball and have always tried to live my life in a way that would be honorable," he said. "If I have let down people that care about me, I am sorry, but I hope that you will listen to me carefully and understand that two days of perhaps bad judgment should not ruin a lifetime of hard work and dedication.
"I have tried to do things the right way my entire life, and, again, ask that you put those two days in the proper context. People that know me will know that what I say is true," he said. (Yahoo! News)
Pettitte's situation is obviously different from Roger Clemens' situation.
However, his name is soiled because of this report because, unfortunately, knew the wrong people. If he got HGH from someone who wasn't called to testify, no one would know. And that is one of the problems of the Mitchell Report.
1 comments:
Although I must give Pettitte credit for coming clean on using HGH, I am still weary of his explanation. This is not because I do not believe him, but because there are many who can just as easily use that excuse when it is not true. Once fingered for using roids or HGH it is easy to put out a statement saying that "I used them for only a day or two" or that "I bought them, but I didn't use them." In the end if a player has bought the product, he is as guilty as ever one else because there is no way to know if he used them to a great extent or barely at all. Coming out an admitting to using banned substances is a good thing, but many of excuses players throw out their are meaningless unless they also present proof.
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