Does Andy Pettitte deserve to have his number retired?

      Andy Pettitte is set to have his number retired by the New York Yankees on August 23rd of this year. This has some people scratching their heads including his former teamate Chuck Knoblauch. In 2007, Andy Pettitte was caught in the middle of a steroid scandal when his name showed up on the Mitchell report. This put Pettitte in an uncomfortable situation, baseball was in a dark age, it was a tainted sport full of players abusing performance enhancing drugs and his name was on the list. This had many baseball fans confused, Pettitte was one of the league's most established veteran players, a pitcher who didn't throw very hard to begin with, something didn't add up.

      After his name showed up on the list, Pettitte confessed he took HGH in 2002 to help speed up his recovery from an arm injury he'd sustained. Unlike most players taking banned substances, Pettitte was simply using his to recover and get back to the sport he loved (most use it to improve their performance). With all that said, it doesn't exempt him from breaking the rules of America's past time, Andy Pettitte cheated, he took a substance that was banned from baseball. However, how he handled the situation is what saved his legacy.

     Unlike his good friend Roger Clemens, who's name was also on the Mitchell report, Pettitte owned up to his mistake and continued to thrive as a starting pitcher for the Yankees. Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens shared similar legacies with the Yankees, yet only one of them is getting their number retired by the Yankees, and that's Pettitte. But does he deserve this honor?

    I visited Yankee stadium to see if I could find some Yankee fans to give me their incite on this situation. After a handful of conversations the overall consensus was that Pettitte deserved it. He's made up for whatever mistakes he's made in the past and is still considered to most, a Yankee great. This goes to show how forgiving baseball fans can be, as long as you own up to your past mistakes. Pettitte is set to join an elite group of former Yankees, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Yogi Berra along with 14 others to have their number retired.