Will Pettitte open the new Yankee Stadium?

June 12, 2008   ·   Paul Raymond   ·   Jump to comments

New York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte likes to play guessing games about his career, much like his former best friend Roger Clemens. Andy almost retired after last season, but decided to come back to the Yankees for a whopping $16 million deal for one season. Not a bad deal for someone who had an era over 4.00. There’s no doubt he’s enjoying the chance to close out the current Yankee Stadium. He thinks it would be an honor to open the new one as well. The real question isn’t will he return, but as a Yankees fan I hate to say, should the Yankees bring him back?

“I definitely think that would be a joy and honor to do that, but right now I’m just thinking about this year.”

From a fan stand point, I’d love to see Andy pitching in the new Stadium. For pure sentimental reasons, it would also be great to see him pitch Opening Day, but there is no chance of that happening even if he is back. Based on this seasons sampling so far thou, I’d say a lot has to happen for him to get a chance to don the pinstripes next season.

Andy started off the season hot, it was a vintage Pettitte., sporting a 3.74 era after his first 7 starts. After that thou, the wheels have fallen off the bus as Pettitte now sports a 4.99 era start going into tonights start against the Oakland Athletics. I may be being a little rough on him thou now that I think about it. Going into his last start he did have a 4.10 but then gave up 10 runs to the Kansas City Royals. But if you watch him pitch, it’s taking a lot more effort then it used to. Teams are putting the ball in play more, batters are hitting a whopping .303 off of Andy.

“The first month of the season I felt I was locked in. I’m not really looking for any answers. I’m just battling my tail off,” he said. “There’s no doubt I feel great. I feel like I’ve been throwing great. It’s definitely frustrating. I just chalk it up to it’s baseball and you’re going to have some bad starts. The rest takes care of itself.”

If Andy feels great then there is no doubt in my mind he’ll come back for one more season if he’s healthy enough. In past seasons, the doubt has always been because of his left elbow, which has bothered him on and off over his career. Last year, he experienced the least amount of discomfort in years and it sounds like he isn’t being bothered by it all this year.

Here’s hoping goes on his patented late season tear, and that the Kansas City Royals start was an aberration, as his success is vital to the team being successful. I know many Yankees fans will doubt my loyalty to the guy has helped bring us so many rings, who knows maybe its just a really bad taste is still in my mouth from the Royals game.

“He’s always been a big-game pitcher. He’s always seemed to rise to the occasion,” Girardi said. “He’s always seemed to get better as the year went on. Most of the time he’s looked pretty decent. He’s had a couple rough outings but I don’t expect that to last.”

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