TWILIGHT OF THE GOD

I am watching Andy Pettitte give up four runs, seven hits, and six walks over five innings, and I am depressed.  Not because the Yankees are losing (well, that’s depressing too), but because we are witnessing the end of a great career.  Indeed, we are seeing the final act of what was likely the greatest rookie class in Yankee history.

Flash back to 1995.  Four rookies came up during the course of the year.  The first was Andy Pettitte, who made the team out of Spring Training.  The other three made their appearances during the course of the season.  Their names were Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera.  They would form the nucleus of the last of the great dynasties, the Yankees of 1996-2001.

At age 23, Andy went 12-9 in 26 starts and finished third in the Rookie of the Year balloting.  With his help the Yankees won the Division and took the Mariners five games before succumbing.  The following year he won 21 games, and along with David Cone formed the one-two punch that carried the Yankees to the pennant.

Andy became a fixture as the number two starter in the Yankee rotation.  He gave us nine years and 149 wins, years that included six trips to the World Series and four championships.  Inexplicably, Steinbrenner chose to let him go after 2003, and he spent three years in Houston before coming home in 2007.  To date, Andy has 220 wins, six more than the much ballyhooed (and overrated) Curt Schilling.  Along with Jeter, Posada, and Rivera, Andy represents the last vestige of the remarkable 1998 team, arguably the greatest team in baseball history.

But now Andy is old.  After tonight’s loss he is 5-2, but he has been a shadow of his old self, struggling through each game, pitching mostly on guts.  Aging is a painful process for all of us, but it is especially bittersweet when watching a consummate pro like Andy Pettitte slowly decline.  It will be worse when it happens to Derek and Mo.

But Andy is still with us, and for however short a time, we can still enjoy watching a truly classy guy give us his best.  Maybe things will break right, and he will have one last chance to pitch in the World Series.  He deserves it.

View gormanb's Profile      Subscribe via RSS