TAMPA, Fla. -- I keep hearing this idea from fans about how Andy Pettitte wronged Roger Clemens by telling the truth to Congress about their now infamous HGH conversation of 1999. They think Pettitte should have conveniently "forgotten'' that conversation, as if lying under oath is the right route.
And I can think of no bigger crock than that.
If anyone wronged anyone here, Clemens is the one who wronged Pettitte.
Just like Clemens is the one who wronged the trainer, Brian McNamee, if anyone still cares about that poor sap.
If Pettitte has made any major mistake in life, it was in idolizing the wrong man. Petttitte's biggest sin was in his blind respect and reverence for Clemens, a big pitcher and even bigger egomaniac.
And apparently, Pettitte still reveres Clemens. Even after all he's been put through, he still admires the man.
Even Monday, a day Pettitte apologized profusely to George Steinbrenner, all his fans and everyone else he could think of for becoming embroiled in the performance-enhancing scandal and becoming a spring distraction, he still mentioned his "admiration'' for Clemens. "I love him like a brother,'' Pettitte said about Clemens.
And Pettitte declined to blast Clemens for dragging him and half his family into this mess by insisting on his crazy day in court. Pettitte said he "obviously has feelings about that,'' but refused to get into them.
Whatever, Clemens is the one who stuck it to Pettitte, not the other way around.
Just like Clemens is the one who stuck it to his own wife, Debbie. And to Pettitte's father, Tom. And to the trainer, McNamee. And to his agents, who surely told him he was in the Mitchell Report, no matter what Clemens says now.
Heck, Clemens even somehow saw fit to stick it to Bud Selig.
Clemens is a one-megalomaniac wrecking crew here.
It didn't have to be this way.
If Clemens had simply affirmed what McNamee said about him in the Mitchell Report, just as Pettitte and even party boy Chuck Knoblauch did, rather than to promote his cockamamie story of non use, it all would have been over long ago.
If Clemens had simply told the truth, as Pettitte did, there wouldn't have been any hearings. And Pettitte wouldn't have been put in this impossible spot between two close longtime allies, Clemens and McNamee.
"I've been friends with Roger and Mack a long time,'' Pettitte said in his news conference. "I never wanted to take sides. But I only had to be honest. I was under oath. So I was just as honest as can be with the committee.''
Sure, he was. Pettitte understood that under oath meant he could go to jail if he lied. Pettitte isn't perfect, but he is no liar. And he shouldn't have to go to jail for his cheatin' buddy.
Pettitte is a good man who made a terrible decision to follow his idol. He tried HGH at his weakest moment, when his elbow was killing him in 2002, three years after Clemens told he took HGH, then tried it again two years later, after the elbow flared up again. He saw it as catching up, not getting an edge. He knew it was illegal but justified it as not being banned by baseball at the time.
He understands doctors should write prescriptions for drugs like these. He knows he did wrong.
Petttitte maintained he doesn't consider himself a cheater. I'd say he cheated when he took the HGH. But he's no Giambi or Canseco or Bonds or Clemens. He's a good man who got desperate and foolish, not someone who built a career artificially.
Pettitte was questioned in his deposition about whether he took the HGH because Clemens had done so, and Pettitte said no. He took the bullet there. He said it was his call, and his call alone. He said the "three-year gap'' between the '99 conversation and his decision to use HGH proves Clemens' words had nothing to do with it. But I am not so sure.
If anyone had these two guys pegged, believe it or not, it was McNamee. Pettitte's deposition revealed that McNamee advised Pettitte against taking HGH because he wasn't sure Pettitte could live with himself if he did. And he does appear to be paying now.
As for Clemens, McNamee kept those used and bloody syringes and gauze pads. Because he just knew that push comes to shove, Clemens would try to shove anyone in his way.
Clemens did encourage Pettitte to work harder and to become better. But Clemens was no great influence in Pettitte's life. And Pettitte stopped short of following him down the possible perjury path.
Pettitte is no steroid taker. I believe him when he said that Monday. Pettitte is one of hundreds of major leaguers who used performance-enhancing drugs. It appears that he only dabbled in them. "There are no other surprises out there,'' Pettitte said.
And he is no liar. Sure, it would have been better if he had admitted his third usage, in 2004, when he made his original statement. But he was trying to protect his ailing father, Tom, who got him the HGH that time.
Pettitte told the truth about his usage, if not as quickly as some may have liked. But he when it comes to the truth, he isn't too bad.
He appears way ahead of Bonds and Gary Sheffield on that score, and way ahead of his idol, who put him in this situation by coming up with this unbelievable, cockamamie story that Clemens' trainer, workout partner and petite wife Debbie were involved with performance enhancers but that he -- Roger Clemens, 354-game winner -- is completely clean.
Had Clemens simply "fessed up,'' as they say in Texas, there wouldn't have been any story from Clemens about how it was really his wife who was the HGH freak in the household. There wouldn't have been that lie-fest on 60 Minutes.'
And there wouldn't have been no need for those ugly, messy hearings. The original plan was to call Selig, union chief Don Fehr and George Mitchell. It was only after Clemens called into question the biggest revelation of the report that they felt the need to consider and call Clemens.
And even then, they didn't want to do it. The House committee members still didn't want to drag Clemens in. He insisted on it.
Clemens craved to have his day. And now, thanks to his pathetic testimony, which only his own lawyers and a few Republican congressman could believe, he may have many more days in court.
McNamee told me when I interviewed him as we watched 60 Minutes together that Clemens may actually have convinced himself that he is telling the truth. I actually think what Clemens has convinced himself of is that the world owes him. That the country owes him. That Selig owes him.
He believes he took steroids and HGH for them, not for himself. That he got to keep the $28 million pro-rated is irrelevant.
He's an American hero, and he thinks everyone should bow down to his greatness. His ego is bigger than all of Texas.
Pettitte isn't like that at all. He seemed pretty contrite Monday.
Pettitte isn't the angel we thought he was. He's a regular guy who did what a lot of major league players did.
Pettitte's taking a lot of shots these days, and he deserves some of them. But Pettitte didn't behave any differently than many baseball players, or even maybe most players.
And when he was put under oath, he told the truth. Which is more than we can say for some of them.
