Photo: bleedingyankeeblue.blogspot.com
- Adam Parker
No, you're not hallucinating and you don't have an eye problem.
Andy Pettitte is ending his short retirement to return 'home' to the New York Yankees.
Pettitte, who retired before last season, has signed a one-year minor league contract with an invitation to spring training, the team said. If he is added to the major league roster, he earns himself a $2.5 million bonus.
Apparently, someone got the 'itch' to come back to the ballpark and give it another go.
As a Yankees fan, to say I'm over the moon would be an understatement.
The guy is as clutch as they come when it comes to postseason pitching, and to be honest, outside of staff ace CC Sabathia, I'd be okay with giving Pettitte a spot in the rotation replacing any one of the guys we have slotted to pitch in spots two through five.
But why come back now, Andy?
You know what I say to that?
Why the hell not?
I mean, it's completely understandable why Pettitte came back to the Bronx.
Professional sport is its own addictive drug. This is why Peyton Manning endures surgery after surgery to quite literally put his neck on the line to continue slinging the pigskin around.
It's why Michael Jordan came out of retirement twice, once in 1995 to rejoin the Bulls after not getting it done on the baseball diamond and again for two more NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Washington Wizards.
Pettitte had ended his Yankees career after the 2010 season the way every championship athlete should go out. He had five World Series titles to his name, and following years of low-maintenance, high-caliber work, he'd maintained his popularity despite his admission of human growth hormone use to get over injuries faster.
He was relatively healthy, still a productive winner on the field, and eager to spend the rest of his life with his wife and four kids.
But after only one season away, Petttitte couldn't resist the lure of competition and clubhouse camaraderie, the life of a big league ballplayer. On Tuesday he found himself throwing a covert bullpen session for Yankees officials in Tampa, Fla., and on Friday he found himself with a contract that will return him to the Bronx sometime before his 40th birthday in June.
Pettitte said it best himself, "I think I told y'all, when people asked, 'Would I ever come back?' I said, 'You know what? I would probably be too embarrassed to come back because I'm retiring and I'm announcing a retirement," Pettitte said. "That's where I've been over the three or four days. I am embarrassed that I'm coming back. What can I do?"
"Things have changed. My desire to do this has changed. I sure in the heck don't want to look back 10 years from now and said, 'Man, I wish I would have done that.' "
For Pettitte, that was the bottom line. He said he knows in his heart that he is doing the right thing.
"I believe if I'm mentally right, then I'm going to win," he said.
I completely agree, Andy. If you feel right, you'll be winning in no time at all.
And who knows? Maybe the presence of the three of the Big Four (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Pettitte) could lure the fourth member (Jorge Posada) out of his recent retirement. You know, get the old band back together for one more run at a sixth World Series ring.
Okay, I know. It's not likely.
But a guy can dream, can't he?
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