Dear Andy,
I don’t want to sound desperate or anything but…please come back! Pretty please?! With sugar and candy and $15 million on top?
Frankly, most of us don’t really know what to do with ourselves since Cliff Lee spurned “our” checkbook for the, um, warm embrace of Philadelphia. And really, it’s no so much the money, it’s the rejection in favor of Philadelphia! Who likes Philly more than they like New York? Philly fans, that’s who! I’d call Philly a poor man’s NYC, but that’d be giving it too much credit. I mean, the Bleacher Creatures may give other teams a hard time, but they vomit on you in Philly. They boo Santa Claus? I know you can’t abide that.
And you know what else I don’t think you can abide? Lee saying he wanted to go to the place he had the best place to win championships, and rejecting the Yankees. The same Yankees you’ve helped carry to 5 championships in the past 15 seasons. That’s one ring every 3 seasons! How many other franchises in North American sports can say they’ve done that? Not the Phillies. Are you going to stand for that slap in the face to the organization and its fans who you’ve given so much effort and dedication to and who, in return, have loved you right back since 1996?
But forget all of that Andy, and let me drop whatever pretense of non-desperation I might have maintained. The bottom line is; we need you Andy. NEED you. You’re the best pitcher left on the market and after you, the only remotely decent pitcher left is Carl @$#%in’ Pavano. You know as well as I do that he’s never wearing a Yankee uniform again. So without you Andy, there’s a really good chance we’ll have to watch Sergio Mitre make 20+ starts. You wouldn’t want us to have to suffer through that would you? After all of the good times we’ve had together, surely you want to save us from that. Right?
We want to give you a proper send off. We want to treat you to your very own Paul O’Neill moment when you throw your final pitch in Yankee Stadium, hopefully in the World Series. But most of all Andy, we want, we need, you to pitch. Just this one last time. For us. For the memories. For the New York Yankees.
We’re going to love you no matter what you decide to do Andy. You’re going to have a plaque in Monument Park, and you’ll probably get your number retired too, and a lot of us will bite, scratch, and kick to get tickets to Andy Pettitte Day if that’s what it takes. But I’ll be honest, we’ll love you just a little bit more if you save us from Sergio Mitre in 2011. Help us Andy Pettitte, you might be the only one who can.
Best regards,
Brien
HA HA. Funny desperate Yankee fan!
Nicely written article. How long before Jeter, Mo, and Posada are on a plane to Texas begging Andy to come back?
I don't know, but I'd chip in for airfare.
Didn't you just put up a long post yesterday detailing why the Yanks will be as good, or even better, than last year – even without Andy? I totally agree that we want him and need him, but yeterday's post becomes a bit less compelling in the wake of this open letter.
I simply don't understand why the Yanks didn't get B Webb. He's exactly the type of guy they should be aiming for at this point. There's still Francis out there, but I would rather take a chance on Webb. That said, I'd like to see them sign Francis. At least there's some upside there. I also don't get why the Yanks haven't done more to upgrade the 'pen. I don't want them giving out 3yr deals to and reliever, but Jenks got a reasonable contract, I think.
It's been a weird offseason. I have no problem with them aiming for Lee and missing out. But it seems strange that they literally had no other plan to improve. At this point, I'd like to see them sign Francis and maybe a Fuentes (if it's for less than 2 yrs) and then trot out Nova and eventually one of the B's.
But man…it'd be nice if Andy came back too.
Good post, and yes the Yankees do NEED pettite (relatively speaking)….
But as someone else pointed out, let's not act like this has been some sort of 15 year love fest
George Steinbrenner never liked Pettite, that is the cold, hard truth. Pettite was allowed to "walk" following the '03 season which didn't make sense at the time and doesn't now. Also with the HGH stuff, the snitching, and the retirement stuff, its been awkward.
I don't think the Yankees or their fans have much of an emotional attachment to Pettite or much respect for him anymore. It's just business. The money is there to be spent, he can help, let's bring him back into the fold.
Maybe they can pull the Clemens routine from 2007 and convince him to come back for the last 2/3 of the season? 2 months of Mitre is better than 6, right?
If I remember, that ended with Clemens getting hurt in his only playoff start and the team being bailed out by Phil Hughes
Let's hope that doesn't happen with Pettite
@ Brian "I don't think the Yankees or their fans have much of an emotional attachment to Pettite or much respect for him anymore. It's just business. "
I was there Game 6 against the Phillies, and I can safely say that is untrue. The stadium was as louder than any I've ever been in, and the entire stadium was shaking with the chants of his name. Whatever the general perception is, you can consider me an Andy Pettitte Loyalist.
Yankee fans would chant Satan's name if he was helping them win a World Series….
I don't mean to be too hard on Pettite, an all time Yankee who should absolutely have his number retired by the team someday, just injecting a dose of reality.
Some guy on here a week or so ago make the statement that he though Pettite was THE most popular Yankee from this era.. How could he be any higher than 4th (Jeter, Bernie, Mo?)… not that its a big deal, just sayin
I read that first line as Santa instead of Satan the first time, it was much funnier my dyslexic way
It's not much of a cross sample, but amongst the group of Yankee fans I interact with regularly Pettitte is EXTREMELY popular. He's probably second only to Mo.
My favorite Yankee since the latest golden era started ('96) is definitely Paul O'Neal. I'd agree that Petitte is a few rungs down that ladder, if nothing else because he's almost never (never?) Been the best pitcher on the staff and because he's a pitcher and because, frankly, he's pretty boring. That's part of his charm, of course, but it makes it tough for him to be a top favorite. Still, I'd be shocked if there are many Yanks fans who aren't Petitte fans and who don't feel loyalty to him.
I'll skip the missing "t" in Pettitte's name since that's a common typo, but if you claim a guy is your favorite player, at least get it close when it comes to spelling his name! C'mon Bobby!!!!
Paul O'Neill! (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)
Sorry – bad spelling bugs me. But he's very much not my favorite player. I was just saying that I do think Yanks fans do appreciate him and feel loyalty to him. He wouldn't make my top 5, maybe not top 10. But I still love him (not enough to spell his name right, apparently – but still…)
Just busting horns, Bobby!
He's among the most beloved Yanks in the last 30 years (post-70's Thurman/Graig/Reggie era). I'd put him about #6.
This might be a separate posting.