The will-he-or-won’t-he Andy Pettitte stories turned into self-parody weeks if not months ago, but yet here we still are (Newsday):
The Yankees aren’t the only ones waiting on Andy Pettitte.
Pettitte recently postponed a private autograph signing scheduled for Wednesday with a memorabilia dealer that would have brought him to the New York area.
The date was advertised on Steiner Sports’ website for Wednesday, but it has been changed on the site to Feb. 15.
Remember Schrödinger’s Cat? Pettitte is Schrödinger’s Pitcher. I don’t mean in the sense that he is trapped in a box with poison and is simultaneously alive AND dead according to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics… well, let’s hope not, anyway; that would make Sergio Mitre pretty inevitable. No, I mean he’s in this weird stage of not being a Yankee but at the same time still being a Yankeee, simultaneously retired and unretired. Let’s hope we open up the box soon and find out his current state one way or the other, before some poor New York Post reporter is forced to dress up as a priest and ambush Pettitte in his church’s confessional.
Oh, man, I'm really hoping he doesn't become quantum entangled with Bartolo Colon.
EΨ =HΨ
Remember after the 2003 season when the Yankee got all hung on A Rod and let their pitching staff disappear? Andy and Roger went to the Astros. We ended up with a patched pitching staff that couldn't stop the Red Sox. Andy wanted to stay NY, but the Yankees played like a fool. Well, Andy and Roger did quite well in 2004 and later 2005, while the Yankees wilted. Andy owes the Yankees nothing. But I do hope he returns to help us.
That patched pitching staff went up three games to nothing on the Red Sox before the Sox made an improbable comeback; you can mostly blame the bats failing after scoring seventeen runs on the eve of a sweep. They continued to make it into the playoffs until 2008, so the pitching staff didn't go anywhere really. And as far as being hung up on A-Rod, I don't exactly remember when the Yanks declared they were going to move heaven and earth to extract him from Texas; in fact it wasn't even that complicated when the trade happened. Finally, if Andy really wanted to stay that badly, he would have waited instead of letting his father and his "training buddy" talk him into going to Houston where he injured himself (2004 you said?) before having one good year (HGH) and one rather mediocre year, then jetting back to New York and declaring it's either the Yanks or retirement from then on.
[3] And of course, one of the main reasons behind NY being willing to let Andy go was their fear that his elbow wasn't entirely sound.
Which it wasn't.
[2] Let the pitching staff disappear? Mussina was there, Conteras was moved to the rotation, they traded for Vazquez and Brown and signed Lieber along with El Duque.
[4] Yes, many people forget that Andy's elbow blew up in 2004.
I'm resigned to never seeing Andy pitch again.
It kills me inside but that's the way things are, evidently.
It was hard enough losing him the first time (I've never gotten over it), now it's happening again.
I wish he could just offer a farewell season like Moose did to give us a chance to say goodbye and come to terms.
[2] [4] [5] Not only that, but the Yanks received the Astros' 1st round draft pick that year in compensation for losing Pettitte. They used that draft pick to draft Hughes.
All in all, as sad as Andy's departure was, I think it worked out just fine for the Yanks.
[6] Though, like weeping, I'd love to see a farewell season for Pettitte, so I could go see him pitch one more time.
I'd like to see him peering over that glove one more season.
"[2] Let the pitching staff disappear? Mussina was there, Conteras was moved to the rotation, they traded for Vazquez and Brown and signed Lieber along with El Duque.
[4] Yes, many people forget that Andy’s elbow blew up in 2004."
[2) that wasn't much of a pitching staff. Mussina was our only ACE. They rest where patch work. We had great bats because we didn't have great pitching.
Andy was hurt, but came back. They Yankees best staff after 2003 was in 2009 and had the potential in 2010. Andy owes the Yankees nothing.