New York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte who was named in just about one and half pages of the Mitchell Report on Thursday admitted Saturday afternoon to using HGH, Human Growth Hormone, on two occasions in 2002.
Pettitte who issued a statement through his agent Randy Hendricks said he took HGH twice when he was on the disabled list in 2002 with an elbow injury. Pettitte said it was his understanding that HGH would allow him to heal faster. He also said that after two days of taking he stopped because it didn’t feel right to him.
He also emphasized he did not and never has used steroids.
“In 2002 I was injured. I had heard that human growth hormone could promote faster healing for my elbow,” Pettitte said in the statement.
“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.”
The Yankees were advised he was making a public statement and have backed him and “support him in coming forward”.
Pettitte, 35, who has pitched for the New York Yankees (1995-2003, 2007) and the Houston Astros (2004-06) just signed a one year $16 million contract extension with the Yankees for 2008. He had been contemplating retirement.
With this apparently proving that what Brian McNamee said, at least regarding Pettitte, is true you have to wonder about the allegations concerning Pettitte’s close friend and former Yankees and Astros teammate Roger Clemens. Clemens, a seven time Cy Young Award winner and 354-game winner, also showed up on the Mitchell Report. McNamee claims to have injected Clemens with steroids in 1998 while he was pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays and McNamee was the team’s strength and conditioning coach. McNamee followed Clemens to New York when the pitcher was traded there in 1999 and that’s where McNamee met Pettitte.
Clemens through his attorney has vehmently denied the allegtions in the Mitchell Report.
