Cashman Says Pettitte Contract Settled Before Mitchell Report
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Cashman (r) Says Pettitte Deal Was
Agreed To Before Mitchell Report |
Yankees GM Brian Cashman yesterday said that terms of Yankees P Andy Pettitte's contract, announced December 12 just one day before the release of the Mitchell Report, were agreed to ten days before the contract was announced publicly, according to Alan Schwartz of the N.Y. TIMES. Therefore, the contract was agreed upon "up to a week before Pettitte said he learned that he would probably be included in the report." Cashman indicating that "while he did not know for certain that Pettitte's name would be included in the Mitchell Report, he was not taken by surprise." Cashman added that Pettitte's agent Randy Hendricks informed him during negotiations that Hendricks received a letter that "indicated that Mitchell investigators wanted to speak with Pettitte." On advice from the MLBPA, Hendricks declined the invitation on Pettitte's behalf." Schwartz notes the "confusion surrounding what Pettitte knew appears to stem in part from the amount of time the Yankees routinely take to announce contracts -- often days after a deal has been widely reported in the news media." Cashman said that the deal was agreed to by Hendricks on December 2, while Pettitte's lawyer Jay Resigner yesterday said that the contract was filed with the MLBPA "for consideration" on December 6. Pettitte: "I don't feel like I misled the club. I think at any time, and I was kind of joking with Cash about this, but at any time, if this organization didn't want me, all they had to do was tell me they didn't want me to play, and I would shut it down. Understand right now, if they don't need me on this team, I don't need the money. I don't need to go through this" (N.Y. TIMES, 2/19).
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Pettitte Could Be Required
To Testify In Court Cases |
ANOTHER TESTIMONY? Pettitte yesterday spoke for about an hour to media at a press conference, and one of Pettitte's attorneys Thomas Farrell said that Pettitte was "mostly mum about [free agent P] Roger Clemens for three reasons, one of which is the possibility that Pettitte isn't done with the legal system." Farrell: "The affidavit finalized it and this was a very difficult thing to do, to testify about two friends [also former Yankees trainer Brian McNamara]. And third ... there is a very good likelihood that he may be required to testify again either in a defamation lawsuit (Clemens against McNamara) or there is a grand jury proceeding in that." Clemens faces the possibility of being "indicted by a grand jury on a federal perjury charge" (N.Y. POST, 2/19). In Pittsburgh, Ron Cook writes Pettitte will find himself "smack in the middle of any perjury investigation of Clemens," who last week testified under oath at a U.S. House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform hearing that he had never used steroids or HGH. Pettitte also "figures to be front and center in Clemens' defamation suit" against McNamara (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 2/19).
STEINBRENNER CHIMES IN: Yankees Senior VP Hank Steinbrenner said Pettitte "should not be criticized too harshly in opposing ballparks." Steinbrenner: "I don't think they would want to be hollering too loud at Andy up in Fenway. They had plenty of players doing this stuff, too. It's just that those players weren't mentioned in the Mitchell Report." Steinbrenner also "feels that all too often baseball is at the center of the steroid and HGH scandal while the NFL is not getting its fair share of criticism." Steinbrenner: "Football is a sport that is built for the use of this stuff with recovery, injuries and everything else, yet the NFL is not criticized nearly as much as baseball, and that upsets me. Baseball is being unfairly singled out" (N.Y. POST, 2/19).
REAX: In N.Y., John Harper writes Pettitte yesterday during his presser "cast more doubt over Clemens' repeated denials simply by the way he conducted himself Monday." Pettitte spoke "seemingly from the heart and clearly without a script as he answered question after question." Harper: "You couldn't help thinking that Congress should have insisted on Pettitte testifying" at last week's hearing. Had Pettitte testified, "chances are Clemens would have sounded even more ridiculous when he insisted that Pettitte must have 'misheard' or 'misremembered' their conversation about HGH" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 2/19). But in Detroit, Drew Sharp writes last week Congress was "clueless." Pettitte yesterday was "as equally oblivious." Sharp: "We're awash with blanket apologies from those mentioned in the Mitchell Report, but nobody has conceded they willingly compromised the integrity of honest athletic competition" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 2/19).
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