Pettitte Apologizes for Embarrassing Fans

New York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte addressed the media for the first time since admitting to his use of human growth hormone, participating in an hour-long press conference Monday at the Yankees spring training facility.

"I want to apologize to the New York Yankees and Houston Astros organizations, their fans, my teammates and all baseball fans for the embarrassment I have caused them," Pettitte said. "I also want to tell anyone who is an Andy Pettitte fan that I am sorry."

Pettitte, who admitted to using HGH briefly in 2002 and 2004 while suffering from elbow injuries, reiterated several times that, though he knew what he was doing was in violation of baseball’s rules, he only used HGH to speed up his recovery process, not to gain a competitive advantage.

"I’ve been put under oath," Pettitte said. "There are no other surprises out there. Anything else that comes up would just be false allegations."

Pettitte was named in the Mitchell Report by his former trainer Brian McNamee. McNamee made further allegations against Pettitte’s close friend Roger Clemens in the report, allegations that Clemens has consistently denied, including in last Wednesday’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing where Clemens and McNamee both testified.

It was originally expected that Pettitte, who gave a sworn affidavit to the committee, would also testify at that hearing, but he said he was extremely relieved that he was not called to the hearing.

"I didn’t want to do it, and my lawyers were able to get me out of that," he said. "If I never believed in God before, I believed in him when I wasn’t asked to testify. I prayed awfully hard that I wouldn’t have to testify at that hearing."

Pettitte said that he did not watch the proceedings, and that he has not spoken with Clemens since the hearing.

"Roger knows how I feel about him, he knows that I’ve admired him and I continued to admire him," Pettitte said. "He’s been a great friend to me, and I love him like a brother. This is a difficult situation, because (McNamee’s) like a brother to me also and (McNamee) told the truth about me."

Pettitte admitted that McNamee’s testimony in the Mitchell Report about his HGH use was accurate, and in his affidavit he recounted conversations with Clemens that implicated the seven-time Cy Young winner also used HGH.

In his testimony before Congress, Clemens said that Pettitte "misremembers" the conversation.

Pettitte also said he regretted bringing his father, Tom Pettitte, into the situation. In his deposition, Pettitte said that his father obtained the HGH for him from a trainer at a gym he works out in.

"I never wanted to bring my father into this," Pettitte said. "But, I was under oath, and I had to be able to sleep at night. I wasn’t going to be able to sleep at night if I didn’t tell the truth."