Yankees lefty Andy Pettitte held a news conference yesterday to clear the air about his use of HGH that was revealed in the Mitchell Report, MLB’s investigation into performance enhancing drugs. He also testified before a Congressional committee discussing his, and others’, past use of performance enhancers.

Pettitte was one of many called before Congress – others included Brian McNamee (Pettitte and Roger Clemens’ former trainer), former Yankees and Twins second basemen Chuck Knoblauch, former Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski, and Roger Clemens himself. Pettitte, Knoblauch and Radomski were excused from meeting with the full committee because their depositions in front of staffers was deemed enough.

The main fireworks went off during the conflicting testimony given by Clemens and McNamee – Clemens claiming he’s never done steroids and this is all an attempt to smear his good name, and McNamee claiming he actually shot the steroids into Clemens a couple of times during his career, and all of this unfolding before a packed hearing room on Capitol Hill. It was covered by every major news outlet in North America (and definitely some beyond with Clemens’ appeal) and was a “he said -she said” situation, where they both basically called each other liars. It even appeared that the questioning was divided among political party lines.

This case has gotten completely out of hand. What started as a report on steroids and HGH has turned into a complete and utter fiasco. One of baseball’s finest pitchers of all-time is now under heavy scrutiny, players such as Eric Gagne (who was also named in the Mitchell Report) have to apologize for past indiscretions and the whole thing is just a big distraction that isn’t good for baseball. There’s even been recorded phone calls and used needles brought to the forefront, along with an accusation that Clemens’ wife took HGH to look good for a Sports Illustrated photo shoot.

And isn’t there something better Congress should be doing with their time? Last time I checked, we still had terrorism, the economy and plenty of other real issues these people should be looking at – not whether a baseball player did or didn’t take steroids.

I feel that this is something MLB needs to handle, not the Federal Government. I understand the theory that baseball wouldn’t/hasn’t done enough because they have to think about how it will affect their bottom line, but I think they realize that everyone calling their players cheaters and having it play out in front of the world on CSPAN isn’t the way to go either.

Baseball needs to police itself, especially from a players’ standpoint. This whole nonsense about the “Players’ Code” is just that – nonsense. If a teammate of yours is cheating, you must report it. It’s that simple. There shouldn’t be any “Well, it’s not my place to snitch on a teammate.” YES IT IS YOUR PLACE!!! It’s your game that they’re tarnishing, and it’s your livelyhood they’re pulling through the mud.

As it stands now, I (along with a lot of other fans I might add) don’t believe any of them – I think every baseball player is on something. I obviously know this isn’t true, but who would have ever guessed Andy Pettitte or Chuck Knoblauch to be in the middle of all this? It used to be that ‘roids were only for the Jose Canseco’s and Mark McGuire’s of the world, but now little second basemen and finesse pitchers are being accused of shooting up. Is it so unreasonable to think that A-Rod could be on HGH? Johan Santana? David Ortiz?

I’m certainly not saying they are on anything, but with their size and stats, it has to cross people’s minds. Now anybody who has a good season or who gained some weight (or muscle – lifting weights can add muscle, who knew?) is under suspicion, and that hurts the game infinitely. It needs to be cleaned up, but it needs cleaned up by the people who made the mess, not big brother.

Any comments you guys want to post on this would be great – I’d like to hear how Bucco fans feel seeing as none of our current players were implicated, and it hasn’t really been a big issue in our team’s past…

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