A Tribute to Andy Pettitte

After months of straddling the fence, former Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte is retiring from baseball, leaving a void in the Bronx Bombers' bullpen.

Pettitte, who will be remembered for his saving the Yankees during the 1996 World Series and his admission to using performance-enhancing drugs in 2006, said it's not his body or career he feels is lacking. It's his heart.

"I know my body would get where it needs to be," said Pettitte, "but my heart's not where it needs to be."

Pettitte's superior skill on the mound was evident before he ever put on the pinstripes. Before he came into the league in 1995 he spent several seasons in the Yankees farm system, collecting a record of 51-22 in the minors and never having a losing season.

In 1996, Pettitte made the AL all-star team, led the league in wins (21) and helped lead the Yankees to their first World Series championship since 1978.

Pettitte spent the next seven years with the Yankees, reaching five more World Series Championships and winning three of them. It was during this first part of Pettitte's career that he began to compile what would end up being the best postseason record in the Major League Baseball history.

After the 2003 season, Pettitte left the Yankees to return home to Texas and play for the Houston Astros. During his three seasons with the Astros, Pettitte was the leader of a bullpen which helped the Astros reach their first World Series ever. His 2.39 ERA and 79.7% LOB in 2005 still stand as career-bests.

In 2006, Pettitte returned to New York to help the Yankees win a World Series in 2009 and help himself become the winningest pitcher of the 2000's, racking up 148 wins.

For his career, Pettitte will be remembered as one of the most experienced and one of the most successful pitchers in postseason history. Pettitte was 19–10 with a 3.83 ERA and 173 strikeouts in the postseason (1995–2003, 2005, 2007, 2009–2010), with the most postseason wins in the history of Major League Baseball. He also holds the all-time record for most starts and innings pitched in the postseason (42 and 263, through 2010).

So what's keeping Pettitte out of the Hall of Fame? Other than what would be one of the highest ERAs in Cooperstown (3.87) Pettitte's admission of guilt in using HGH, a hormone which stimulates growth, cell reproduction and regeneration, looms a black cloud over an otherwise sunny career. There will certainly be Hall of Fame voters who will cast their vote against him for that.

But, if Pettitte falls short, his legacy will be that of a pitcher who stepped up to the mound in the biggest of moments and played his best in clutch time. Whenever Pettitte comes back for a pre-game ceremony, or is honored in some way decades down the road, fans will cheer him as they would any other Yankee who is in the Hall.

And there are worse ways to spend your retirement than as a New York baseball hero.