WASHINGTON (AP) -New York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte’s meeting with a congressional committee investigating drug use in baseball was postponed until Monday.
He originally was slated to appear for a deposition or transcribed interview Wednesday.
But the date was changed Tuesday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. It’s the latest in a series of switches to the schedule of witnesses’ meetings with staff members before testifying at a Feb. 13 hearing.
“Just a mutually agreeable postponement,” said Keith Ausbrook, Republican general counsel for the committee. “It give us a little more time to prepare and gives him a little more time to prepare.”
Also asked to appear at next month’s hearing are seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, his former personal trainer Brian McNamee, his former teammate Chuck Knoblauch, and former New York Mets clubhouse employee Kirk Radomski.
Pettitte and Clemens have been teammates and workout partners; Pettitte also has trained with McNamee.
“Mr. Pettitte is cooperating voluntarily with the committee, and we look forward to his testimony on Monday,” panel chairman Henry Waxman and ranking Republican Tom Davis said in a joint statement. “We appreciate Mr. Pettitte’s willingness to assist the committee.”
In last month’s Mitchell Report on the use of performance-enhancing substances in baseball, McNamee said he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone, accusations Clemens has denied repeatedly.
Two days after the report was released, Pettitte acknowledged receiving two HGH injections in 2002 to help recover from an elbow injury.
Pettitte is being represented by Jay Reisinger, a lawyer who represented Sammy Sosa when he testified before the same committee alongside Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro in March 2005.
Knoblauch now is scheduled for Friday and would be the first of the five Feb. 13 witnesses to provide a deposition or transcribed interview. He agreed to appear after a subpoena was issued.
Clemens is to follow Feb. 5, with McNamee down for Feb. 7, and Radomski on Feb. 12 – pending further changes to a repeatedly shuffled schedule.
Letters sent by Waxman and Davis to Clemens, Pettitte and Knoblauch on Jan. 16, requesting their appearances both at the hearing and a pre-hearing meeting, said: “The committee asks that you provide testimony about allegations in Senator George Mitchell’s report … that you and other Major League Baseball players used performance enhancing drugs during your professional baseball career.”
Clemens, Pettitte and Knoblauch were among more than 80 players named in the Mitchell Report.
The report included McNamee’s allegations that he injected Clemens with steroids in 1998 while they were with Toronto, and with steroids and human growth hormone in 2000 and 2001 while with New York.
McNamee told Mitchell he acquired HGH from Radomski for Knoblauch in 2001, and that he injected the player with it. Knoblauch’s major league career ended in 2002.
Radomski pleaded guilty in April to federal felony charges of distributing steroids and laundering money, and is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 8.
The 35-year-old Pettitte has a 201-113 major league record and won four World Series championships with the Yankees. He also helped his hometown Houston Astros reach their first World Series.
Pettitte returned to the Yankees last season and went 15-9. This offseason, he put off retirement and agreed to a $16 million, one-year contract to play for the Yankees next season.
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