The forgotten $39 million.

People believe what they want to believe.

Or, more likely, some people just want to use their newspaper column to deliberately mislead their readers:

"A little more than three years ago, the Yankees decided they had no further use for Andy Pettitte."

The Yankees offered Pettitte $39 million.

The Yankees offered Pettitte more than the Astros offered Pettitte.

One may conclude that it seems that Pettitte decided he had no further use for the Yankees.


"They granted him his free agency and then sat back, not even bothering to make an offer, as Pettitte signed a three-year, $31-million deal with the Houston Astros."

No, Wallace Matthews. That's not the truth.

The Yankees bothered making an offer to Pettitte.

The Yankees bothered with a $39 million offer.

Pettitte turned it down so he could pitch in Houston along with his "special friend" and also so he could pitch for an owner with Christian values. Also, so he could be close to his family.

Not sure how Pettitte could possibly agree to come back and pitch for a secular owner who won't even call him on his cell phone to say "hi." Because that's supposedly why Pettitte left the Yankees in the first place.

I also don't think Steinbrenner became a saint in the interim three years.

I also don't think Pettitte's family has moved to the Bronx.


"The succession of frauds the Yankees brought in to fill the void - Kevin Brown, Javier Vazquez, Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright, Esteban Loaiza and of course, Randy Johnson - fizzled in the regular season and bombed out in October.

Those names are the biggest reasons why the Yankees have not been in a World Series since 2003, have not won it since 2000, haven't gotten past the first round of the playoffs for two years running."

Yes, all of the above-mentioned players have bombed out for the Yankees, to varying degrees. They certainly weren't a suitable replacement for Clemens ... I mean, for Pettitte.

But "since 2000" is an itsy bitsy bit misleading.

None of the above-mentioned pitchers were even on the Yankees in 2001. Or 2002. Or 2003.

In 2001, Kevin Brown was in LA, Carl Pavano was in Montreal, Jaret Wright was in Cleveland, Esteban Loaiza was in Toronto, and Randy Johnson was the pitcher who beat the Yankees in Game Six and Game Seven of the World Series.

Andy Pettitte was the Yankee pitcher who went to Arizona with a 3-2 Series lead and allowed 6 earned runs in 2 innings.


I mean, seriously, think about what Matthews just said: "Esteban Loaiza is one of the biggest reasons that the Yankees haven't won the World Series for the past six years."

Esteban Loaiza, who pitched in 10 whole regular season games for the Yankees, is one of the biggest reasons the Yankees haven't won the World Series for the past six years.

Esteban Loaiza pitched pretty well in the playoffs for the Yankees, actually.

Loaiza pitched 8 1/3 playoff innings for the Yankees and allowed 1 earned run.

The fraud with the 1.08 postseason ERA is the reason the Yankees haven't won a World Series since 2000.


"But they know they were wrong on this one. He may have won some of the biggest postseason games in their recent history - only Orlando Hernandez had a better record in October - but "they" (read: George M. Steinbrenner III) didn't think three more years of Pettitte was worth $31 million."

Give me a minute to get my calculator.

Sure enough, 39 is more than 31.

Using the transitive property, I can prove that George M. Steinbrenner III actually thought Pettitte was worth more than 3 years and $31 million.

Though George M. Steinbrenner III did not think Pettitte was worth 4 years and $52 million.


"Still, he remains one of the 10 best pitchers in baseball and the Yankees' best hope of regaining, even for a year, the spark that has left them over the past couple of years."

Andy Pettitte is not one of the 10 best pitchers in baseball.

If Andy Pettitte was one of the top ten pitchers in baseball, then I could not create the following list, which I call, "Ten Baseball Pitchers Who Are Better Than Andy Pettitte":

1. Johan Santana.
2. Mariano Rivera.
3. Chien-Ming Wang.
4. Curt Schilling.
5. Roy Halladay.
6. Jeremy Bonderman.
7. Barry Zito.
8. Scott Kazmir.
9. Justin Verlander.
10. Francisco Liriano.
    

That was easy. I didn't even have to look up the stats. That was just off the top of my head. Heck, I didn't even get out of the American League.


I don't think Wallace Matthews is this stupid or this forgetful. Matthews has to know that Pettitte is not one of the top ten pitchers in baseball and Matthews couldn't have possibly forgotten that the Yankees offered Pettitte $39 million.

Matthews does this on purpose.

For some unknown reason, it's important for Wallace Matthews praise Andy Pettitte and criticize George M. Steinbrenner III.