There has been a mixed reaction to the New York Yankees announcing that Andy Pettitte's No. 46 will be retired this summer due to his past HGH use, but the left-hander said he didn't use it to enhance his on-field performance.
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Pettitte appeared on ESPN's The Michael Kay Show on Tuesday and said that he used HGH to heal an injury, not as a way to cheat and make his on-field performance better.
"People are going to say what they want to, believe what they want to," Pettitte told the show, according to ESPN. "When you say PEDs to me, man, I just can't even comprehend that with me just because I don't really believe I tried to enhance my performance on the field. If I would have, I would have told y'all that. Man, my story has been an open book. When it all came out [in the Mitchell report in 2007,] I sat in the press conferences there for hours, I believe."
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Pettitte said the desperation of working his way back from an injury led to his use of HGH, not a drive to become better on the field.
"I was told that [HGH] might be able to help me heal from an injury, in a time when I was searching and desperate to get back on the field," Pettitte said. "When you say that -- and people are going to believe what they want to believe -- it makes me cringe."
Pettitte's number will be retired by the Yankees on Aug. 23 in a ceremony at Yankee Stadium, but he reiterated that his HGH-use was not a way of getting ahead on the field. "I've never tried to do anything to cheat to enhance my performance on the field," he said. Pettitte also addressed his former teammate Chuck Knoblauch, who dissed him on Twitter:
Congrats to 46. Yankees retiring his number. Hopefully they don't retire it like his HGH testimony. — Chuck Knoblauch (@chuckknoblauch) February 16, 2015
The former pitcher said he has a good relationship with Knoblauch and that he forgives him for what he said.
Pettitte, 42, won five World Series titles with the Yankees and was a three-time All-Star.
The southpaw, who retired in 2013, spent 15 seasons over two stints with the Yankees and also pitched for the Houston Astros from 2004-06.
Pettitte went 256-153 over 531 games (521 starts) with a 3.85 ERA and 2,448 strikeouts in his career and was dominant in the postseason, becoming the all-time winningest pitcher in the playoffs with 19 victories.
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