Andy Pettite - Goodbye and Thank You

So Andy Pettite announced his retirement.

As a baseball fan, I'm sorry to see him go.
The Yankees had some great years with him on the mound.
16 years as a successful Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher more than qualifies as a great career.
And 240 wins over those 16 years is a fantastic feat.

But...as a baseball fan, I'm also happy to see him go.

With Pettite's retirement, MLB fans get one step closer to putting a terrible baseball era behind them.
An era that is better known for the use of performance enhancing drugs (PED) than for any play on the baseball diamond.

No pitcher has ever had a better game-face Foo!

Do some of today's MLB players use PED's?
Yes. I'm sure some do.
But, baseball fans can safely assume that today's players who use PED's are in the minority.

Pettite belongs to an MLB era whose rampant doping lead fans to assume all of its stars were juiced.
And that's a justifiable assumption considering that PED usage marred some of the biggest moments in the sport (one example: The 1998 Home-run Record Chase).

Andy Pettite admitted to his use of PED's in 2007.
But an admission by a player of his generation has been the exception, not the rule.
Therefore, MLB fans have been more willing to forgive Pettite for his PED useage.
Now, these same fans will likely be more friendly to Pettite's legacy than they have been to the legacies of players like Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and others who refused to admit to PED use.

With Pettite's retirement, there is now one less active player from the MLB's PED heyday.
And, that can only be a positive for the sport.

So, again, because I'm a baseball fan, I'm sorry to see Pettite retire.
And, yet...at the same time...I couldn't be happier.


BC for life FOO!