New York Yankees Pitcher Andy Pettitte. Photo Courtesy Allposters.com image:35974:0::0

After the Mitchell Report revealed the names of many ball players who had abused either Steroids or HGH, not many have come to the public and have admitted it except for Andy Pettitte, the New York Yankees pitcher.

Andy Pettitte said in 2002 he was recovering from an elbow injury and wanted to get into action quickly and help his teammates and ballclub. So he said he used HGH on two occasions to recover quickly. He apologized for using it and those were the only time he had ever used HGH or Steroids.

After using on those two occasions he didn’t feel like using them anymore so he stopped using HGH. He said he has never used Steroid on any other occasion.

Pettitte said Saturday in a statement released by his agent:

"If what I did was an error in judgment on my part, I apologize…I accept responsibility for those two days."

The Mitchell report said Pettitte had asked his trainer Brian McNamee, to help him with the HGH while he was on the disabled list in the 2002 season. McNamee recalled injecting Pettitte two to four times at that time.

Pettitte also said in the statement he heard that HGH promoted faster healing, so he used it to get back quickly to the team and never used it during the season and after. Though there were no Baseball laws at that time to use against HGH, he didn’t feel comfortable using it. He said he wasn’t looking for an edge by using HGH, just to heal quickly.

HGH was not banned until January 2005.

He said in the statement:

"I have the utmost respect for baseball and have always tried to live my life in a way that would be honorable…If I have let down people that care about me, I am sorry, but I hope that you will listen to me carefully and understand that two days of perhaps bad judgment should not ruin a lifetime of hard work and dedication.

Pettitte said he has been trying to do the right thing all his life except for those two occasions.

The Yankees have welcomed this statement from Pettitte and they support him.

The 35-year-old lefty is 201-113 lifetime. He started his major league career in 1995 and won four World Series championships with the Yankees. He pitched for his hometown Houston Astros from 2004-06 and helped them reach their first World Series.

Pettitte returned to the Yankees last season and went 15-9. This month, he put off retirement and agreed to a $16 million, one-year contract to play for the Yankees next season.

His friend and fellow pitcher Clemens also released a statement via his lawyer but vigorously denied the accusations in the report. Both used to work together when they played with the Yankees and the Houston Astros.

It is a good response from Andy Pettitte and his statements look believable. His physique also doesn't look out of shape and he was also not trying to go after baseball records. He was a class act on and off the field.

The whole scandal is Baseball’s fault for not having firm policies from the beginning and even now. They let the abusers thrive and now they have to face the consequences, the next season will be hard to watch for Baseball fans.