Do you believe Pettitte?

The problem with steroids that I have is they give you extra strength, muscle mass. That means that someone like Barry Bonds would not be the player his is without them. I don't know how much they would help a pitcher, except having the strength for a really good fast ball, and stamina to stay in the game a little longer. I do believe Pettitte, the same way I believed Sheffield a few years ago when he said it was because of a steriod based treatment for eczema. If it is a one time thing and there hasn't been some major change in the player or his performance recently, it is not a regular thing that is giving him an unfair advantage. By the way, I am a Yankees fan, and I have met very few Red Sox fan who would stick up for a Yankee. Good for you for caring more about the truth and what you believe in rather than just taking sides.

I don't accept the healing faster excuse. Pitching is incredibly stressful on the joints, tendons, and muscles. The ability to heal between games is paramount. Using steroids to increase your healing time is a very big thing with pitchers. It is not right. It creates an unfair advantage to the pitcher who is juicing up compared to the one who is following the rules. Also the human body heals faster for a young kid than a seasoned veteran. I imagine using steroids would add more games to a pitchers life expectancy. That would skew all the records. The bottom line is he did it to make himself better and have an advantage.

I believe Pettitte based on his background and what I know of his character. But he didn't use steroids, he used HGH. I think if people realize the distinction they might be more forgiving than if he was accused of taking steroids. Besides HGH is not uncommon for someone with that kind of injury, although if it were me I would have gone to the top of the MLB and explained what treatment I had had. There might have been some repercussions, but it wouldn't have looked as bad as it does now.

Pettitte apology was very wishy-washy. IF I did something, IF I hurt, IF this or IF that. He should have said, I did this wrong and I will own up to the consequences. I've been on here saying what he used wasn't on the banned list and this is 100 percent true, however, I recently learned they all broke the rules by taking HGH. In the seventies MLB banned players from taking prescription medications without a prescription. A lot of items fall under this category, including HGH because he took it without a prescription.

Perhaps he is telling the truth. Sadly we have 100's, maybe 1000's of people that are being looked at in this scandal...the mitchell report may just be the tip of the iceberg. Plus, there will always be new technology that will beat any new system implemented for testing. The game has had a terrible decade, hopefully things get straightened up partially at least or completely hopefully, but it is doubtful.