New York Yankees superstar and HGH abuser Andy Pettitte wrote the following in his 2005 oeuvre Strike Zone: Targeting a Life of Integrity and Purity by Andy Pettitte and Bob Reccord with Mark Tabb:
As a Christian I also have one goal. I want to fulfill God’s purpose for my life. I constantly ask myself “What does God want me to do?” and “Where does He want me to go?” Those may sound like odd questions to ask in a book about purity. After all, doesn’t purity just mean sexual purity? Hardly. As I said in the last chapter, living a pure life means trying to please God in everything I do. And the best way to please God is living in a way He can work through me and use me in other people’s lives.
There has been a lot of discussion about how responsibility for this scandal rests not just with the players but also with management, MLB officials, trainers, and so on. Maybe it’s time to take the next step: who really was responsible for steroids in Major League Baseball?
First of all, hats off to you for tying God to steroid use. Your ability to correlate unrelated events amazes me. Secondly, it’s such a moot point, because HGH wasn’t banned until 2005 and his use was in 2002 and used for injury recovery and not performance enhancement, which seriously pushes the “abuser” envelope.
And stop trying to dodge the issue.
YES! God came down from on high and exalted the Yankees. In a booming voice “Andrew Petitte! By my divine consul you are instructed to take HGH!”
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p>At this point, the Pope invoked ex cathedra and declared use of HGH to not only be ok, but morally mandatory. According to the Council of Trent, this has been in the code of canon law for ages, but not enforced.
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p>So, as you can see, this is all a farce aimed at discriminating against Christians in baseball.
besides that japanese guy, i bet not.
Is Jewish, and there’s a fair number of Jews who still play. Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda is a Buddhist.
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p>I imagine there are others…
allow me to rephrase: are there many non-abrahamic religionists in baseball? my point being that, for example, a pitcher beats his chest saying his god made all those strike-outs he threw today possible, all the while the guys he struck out worship the same god. “god likes me better than you. nyah nyah!” how juvenile and moronic and pathetic.
I’m sure that Jewish people are OK with being lumped in this way.
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p>I agree on the chest-beating religiosity in sports. Obviously God has more important things to woory about than whether someone makes a great play to convert on 3rd down.
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p>Sports has a tendency to encourage superstitions among its players. Baseball players don’t change their underwear if they are on a streak. Wade Boggs ate chicken. Nomar did that thing with his gloves before every at bat. Papi spits and claps. Trot Nixon never changes his hat during the season. These guys work in the most competitive and darwinian work environment that there is. I put the invocation of religion in this context in the same category. I find it stupid, but not objectionable.
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p>I don’t know what you do for a living, but imagine that you must have your best two months ever between now and mid-February. If you don’t, you’re fired.
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p>To address the comment that you are about to type: Yes, I did just equate religion with superstition. That is because in its most superficial form, it is. And what goes on with professional athletes is “religion” only in the most superficial sense.
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p>When an athlete goes over the top with this, though, it is amusing to watch the “We’re too cultured to partake in such lowly American ‘culture’ as sports, which are patriarchal and violent blah blah military metaphors blah” set deign to comment on sports in order to take the cheap shot on some goof who points at the sky after making a play.
is actually this: i don’t understand your “best months” reference above. so iguess i’m fired…from something…for doing something…or not doing something…
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p>as to your last paragraph, i’m not sure whether you’re including me in that derision or not, so i’ll just let you know that i don’t watch baseball because it is boring for me to watch. i like playing catch though. further, i make it a point to not see the tv screen in bars or restaurants if ice hockey is on, because if i do, i’ll be riveted. this is rude to my friends. i love ice hockey, especially college-level. this is all to say that i don’t have some blanket aversion to sports, but some are mor interesting to me than others. and yes, i do loathe some of them for their obvious macho military blah blah blah. but not all sports are like that. recreational canoing perhaps being the most peaceful.
Again, I have no idea what you do for a living, but imagine that, based on objective performace criteria, which are in significant part out of your control, you must perform better than everyone else who might do your job between now and March, or else lose your job. And, to make the situation comparable, you would have to have nothing to fall back on.
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p>And no, I did not have you in mind at all when I wrote the last paragraph.
Which one?
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p>I don’t know, Laurel … you might want to actually know something about a subject — either religion or baseball — before holding forth. But hey, it’s a blog.
and i wasn’t about to spend the time to find out, knowing that there are people on this blog absolutely steeped in the sport who could (and did -thanks!) answer the question. besides, does the fact of 6 or so japanese players instead of one really interfere with my point that the vast majority of players who are religious are likely to be christian? no, it doesn’t.
Kevin Youkilis is your home town team’s starting first baseman, and a pretty good player.
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p>Sheesh.
my amended comment above. no problem.
Interestingly, Pettitte (note the correct spelling) doesn’t mention any such apparition, but perhaps you are better informed than the rest of us.
What issue is there, other than a gratuitous cheap shot?
Paul Byrd claims to be in a similar situation.
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p>How can taking legal substances as part of a legitimate rehab routine be considered scandalous?
From the Mitchell report:
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p>So Pettitte was breaking the law and thereby MLB policy when he took HGH. In Byrd’s case, he had a prescription, but it was probably not a legitimate one. Rodney Harrison was suspended for similar HGH use — if even the NFL won’t look the other way, it must really be bad.
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p> – Dan
The NFL is far more strict than MLB on all drug issues. This is because the NFL players’ union is quite weak, and so cannot derail testing and enforcment the same way that Don Fehr and the MLB Players’ union can.
“As I said in the last chapter, living a pure life means trying to please God in everything I do.”
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p>I presume that by everything, Andy means everything, including injecting animal juice in his butt. And if God can be responsible for Huckabee’s surge, then it follows, as Laurel hints to elsewhere, that God could be responsible for Pettitte’s HGH use.
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p>One issue here is that Pettitte chose to market himself as a Christian. This is a win-win, as it sends out a signal to “people of faith” that he is one of them and he is to be supported, presumably by buying merchandise from his team and branded with his name and likeness. And there will be no, or at least an insignificant amount, of blow back as it doesn’t seem reasonable that a fan would not dig a player because of his Christianity.
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p>Pettitte’s publicizing of his Christianity has almost everything to do with money and little to do with faith. It is fair for critics of Pettitte to examine his views on faith when he explicitly uses it to markets his image as family-friendly and Christian for monetary gain. People who don’t want to be criticized for their faith should not be asked to be judged favorably by their faith – as Jesus said, “all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword”.
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p>If Pettitte took the Charles Barkley “I’m not a role model” track, this post would not exist.
That would indeed be a different post. I am with tblade on that one.
I get so sick and tired of athletes and politicians thanking god for making them so smashingly successful, blah blah blah, as if god really gives a rip about someone shaving 0.05 seconds off their sprint time or getting 5 more votes than their opponent (who is almost always Christian too, btw). Talk about delusions of grandeur!
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p>According to the logic of the Huckabees and Pettits of the world, the buck must stop Up There! Nice – they need take no responsibility themselves.
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p>Well done, Bob!
Of course, contrary to our esteemed fellow commenter Joe’s apparent conclusion, I didn’t take a position on the issue of responsibility one way or the other. Indeed, for all I know God may indeed care a great deal about the 0.05 seconds you mention.
state my position clearly, for those who may not get it from my appreciation above: god doesn’t give a rip about pettit’s or huckabee’s or even willard’s triumphs/failures, because there is no god. to claim otherwise is to simultaneously self-aggrandize and shirk personal responsibility. i refer to people that do this as Slick Willards, or sometimes as Hucksterbees.
That there is no God? Just curious.
any other silly questions? 🙂
You worry me sometimes, Laurel. But at least now we know where you get your convictions! 🙂
We can’t have JoeTS and others thinking they have a more direct bee-line to The Nonexistent than I do, cuz that’s just so wrong!
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p>Btw Joe, since you mentioned “the intricacies of existence itself” and all, can you dial up The Nonexistent and see if you get a better answer to this question than I do: What is The Purpose of sinus infections? For some reason when I ask questions of this nature, I just get silence, as if there is no one on the other end of the line.
I believe. That might be your answer.
How do I know that there isn’t an infinite being, omnipotent and omniscient, whose cognitive operations are just like the ones I have packed into this tiny cranium of mine? I mean I think I’m super special so anything as super duper special as a deity should have emotions (like caring) just like mine!
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p>Or with less snark: the notion of God makes no sense so there’s no use pondering whether it corresponds to something that exists.
Yeah, creation and science and the intricacies of existence itself are some big coincidence. Nothing is more self-aggrandizing then to act as if there’s no God just because to make such an admission would potentially (and incorrectly) contradict political positions.
We’ve just had a visit from the god of the gaps.
From a few years ago:
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p>And I think that the post is a lot more about Pettite’s hypocrisy than it is about God and sports, right?
thx for the bradshaw quote – love it!
…apparently that somebody doesn’t even know how to spell his name.
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p>…I’m actually astounded by the stupidity of the Sportler’s comment. If god had intended him to have the musculature that (I presume) he got by ingesting hormones, god would have given him the genetic makeup to have that. But (I presume) god did not.
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p>Ingesting synthetic hormones is not exactly benign from a health standpoint. It can lead to significant heart problems, among others. That should tell Sportlers that they shouldn’t mess with Mother Nature.
The baseball player in question, Andy Pettitte, is alleged to have used PEDs on one occassion, in an attempt–likely a failed attempt– to recover more quickly from an injury.
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p>Your comment is therefore unfair to this particular player.
…as I believe I have made clear, I have no idea who this Sportler is. If he was prescribed steroids by a physician for repair of an injury and monitored it for his usage, he could have written so. I did not get that out of the excerpts at the post at the top, but I will acknowledge that that may have occurred.
I don’t think HGH can be prescribed at all.
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p>In any event, the distinction I was making was that this particular athlete is alleged to have used the stuff several times while out with an injury, in a failed attempt to speed up the recovery.
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p>Your post suggested that he was a very long term user, who would not be in baseball at all but for his use of PEDs. Which is not true, of this player at least.
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p>The allegations against Roger Clemens fit your scenario better.
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p>And that is enough defending of Andy Pettitte from me for one day.
…as I mentioned, I don’t have the slightest idea who this guy was. I actually do presume that more than a few high-profile athletes do use performance enhancing drugs, and so I am not disappointed when it comes out that there is evidence that they have.
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p>The problem that you have is that, irrespective of this one individual, high school Sportlers are using steroids, which usage can injure them, in part because even a relatively unknown “major league” Sportler admitted to having done so.
I’ll just submit that high school athletes (Sprtler, WTF?) are responsible for what they choose to put or refrain from putting in their bodies.
…if they want to remain competitive, it is likely that they will have to “keep up with the Joneses” so to speak. If they don’t, it’s unlikely that they will be on the team, next year or next week.
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p>Regarding “Sportler” it’s somewhat obvious what that refers to, even though it is a German word. Americans have no problem with Schadenfreude or Weltanschauung or even Bach (means “brook”), so what would be the issue regarding Sportler?
on Pettitte and doping.
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p>Pettitte is not ‘alleged’ to have used PEDs. On December 15th he admitted using them more than once.
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p>Last year Jason Grimsley was being investigated for drug use by the Feds, when he admitted using HGH, speed & steroids. In a sworn affadavit, Grimsley named Pettitte and 4 others as players who used PEDs. Grimsley told investigators that former Yankee trainer (and Pettitte’s “strength” coach) Brian McNamee had hooked him up.
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p>At that time Pettitte denied the charges, and said that he was “embarassed” by them. Now that Pettitte has been named again as a drug user, this time in the Mitchell Report, he gave a mealy mouthed confession, but claims that he only used them twice.
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p>Sorry, last year Pettitte lied about his drug use, and IMHO he’s lying now about how often he’s used them.