A lot of sound and fury, signifying...well, not much of anything, really....

When you’re born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you’re born in America, you get a front-row seat.

• George Carlin

So Andy Pettitte fessed up to using Human Growth Hormone when he was trying to recover from an elbow injury in 2002? Now, I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know if this treatment was prescribed. I’m also not a lawyer, so I don’t know if this treatment was legal. What I do know is that using HGH in 2002 was not against the rules in Major League Baseball at the time. So where’s the fire? One of the problems I’m having with the the lynch-mob mentality in the wake of the Mitchell Report is the rush to judge action taken sometimes several years ago by today’s rules and mores. I’m not going to condone Pettitte’s treatment or his judgment; I really don’t care much about either. If what he did was not against MLB rules AT THE TIME HE DID IT, then how can anyone say that he did anything wrong? Yes, perhaps it’s not something you or I might do, but how does Pettitte trying HGH to recover from an elbow injury constitute cheating if there were no rules prohibiting using HGH at the time he used it?

Far too many in the media are engaged in a race to see who can condemn cheating, lying players the most. That’s all well and good if you’re trying to sell copy, but in the case of Andy Pettitte, what he did wasn’t even against the rules. Now he finds himself in a position where he feels the need to apologize for something that’s wrong by today’s rules, but wasn’t at the time he did it.

Say hello to the witch hunt….

Most of the 85 players in the Mitchell Report probably deserve to be roasted for the immoral, unethical, and in some cases perhaps even illegal behavior they’re guilty of. The problem I’m having with this witch hunt is that George Mitchell apparently made little if any effort to provide any context…like what behavior broke the rules in place at the time the behavior occurred. Instead, players like Pettitte are left to twist in the winds of public opinion, convicted without having an opportunity to mount a defense. Of course, at least this way Satan Bud Selig can act as if he now has a mandate to take action. Whatever….