Apology is a baseball trend

The big thing at spring
training is players
apologizing for doing wrong.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Baseball’s latest trend has little to do with batting, pitching or fielding. Instead, the big thing at spring training is apologizing.

The starting lineup for the apology All-Stars already includes Andy Pettitte, Paul Lo Duca and Eric Gagne, and exhibition games don’t even start for another week.

Mea Culpa, Fla., and My Fault, Ariz. — they might as well be spring training datelines this year.

Regrets have been delivered in heartfelt news conferences, such as Pettitte’s nearly hour-long confession on Monday in which the New York Yankees pitcher quoted from the Bible and begged forgiveness.

And they’ve come off as flip: When Washington Nationals catcher Paul Lo Duca apologized Saturday and didn’t say for what, he was asked to specify.

“Come on, bro’. Next question,” was his response.

Gagne, the Canadian closer on the Milwaukee Brewers, apologized Monday to his new teammates for “a distraction that shouldn’t be taking place” but never addressed the specific accusations against him. He did acknowledge the Mitchell Report — voila! — only in a separate statement in French to three visiting Canadian media outlets.

Lo Duca and Gagne seemed to follow the model established in 2005 by the Yankees’ Jason Giambi, who said he was sorry five times and apologized three times during an uncomfortable news conference without saying for what.

“I know the fans might want more, but at this present time because of all the legal matters, I can’t get into specifics,” Giambi said then. “Someday, hopefully, I will be able to.”

Asked Tuesday whether in the wake of Pettitte’s admissions he wanted to talk about his motivations for using steroids, Giambi smiled, laughed and brushed off the question.

“Some day. Maybe you’ll read it in my book.” he said.

Some players came off as regretful that they got caught, not that they tried performance-enhancing drugs.

Some evade, such as Mark McGwire: “I’m not here to talk about the past,” he famously told Congress in 2005.

Some refuse to talk about it and cite the advice of their lawyers, as Houston’s Miguel Tejada did Tuesday.

Some deny, such as Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, who have insisted over and over that the accusations against them are false.

Some admit to a single indiscretion with steroids — as Baltimore second baseman Brian Roberts did.

“It’s life. You make bad decisions, you pay whatever price there is and you move on. It’s not the end of the world,” he said. “I’ve sincerely apologized and I know I made a mistake, but it won’t change the rest of my life.”

Pettitte revealed players’ mindsets when he said he wouldn’t have taken HGH in 2002 and 2004 if it had been on baseball’s banned list at the time. He felt what he did was wrong, but not against the rules.

“I wish I never would have done it, obviously, but I don’t consider myself a cheater, no,” he said.

Baltimore outfielder Jay Gibbons, like Pettitte, said he used HGH thinking it would speed his recovery from an injury.

“Embarrassment is a good word. Disappointment. You know, it’s just one of those things where you look in the mirror, and I have no excuses,” said Gibbons, suspended for the first 15 days of the season because his infraction came after HGH was banned.

Colorado pitcher Matt Herges said he was relieved to be named as an HGH user.

“If I’m not standing there naked in front of the world with my big secret, I’d still be holding onto it, hiding it. It would still be eating at me,” he said.