 Welcome to another edition of Yes We're Here, I'm Jack Curry and today we're joined by a man who is very well known to Yankee fans, Andy Pettit and Andy as we get started. The first thing I'd like to ask you is during these difficult times, how are you and your family doing? We're doing good. You know, once we got put in lockdown in the Houston area, we actually kind of traveled down to my ranch down in South Texas. So we've kind of been hanging down here, staying away from everyone, been to the grocery store a few times other than that. You know, it's just trying to do what they've asked and we got word the other day that the schools here in Houston will be canceled for the rest of the year. So it's strange times when you're thinking about your kids and trying to figure out, you know, what's going on. But the kids are all in school right now online doing their thing and, you know, so we're hanging in there. We're doing good. I'm glad to hear that. I know we're all trying to abide by those rules, staying home, staying safe. So it's positive to hear that you and your family are doing well. Andy, have you thought about what you would have done if you were a player right now, a current player? There's so much uncertainty. How would you have kept your mindset ready, kept yourself ready physically for the potential start of a season? Yeah, I mean, this is just where, you know, you've got to be disciplined and you've got to keep your eyes, you know, looking forward and knowing that we'll get back to baseball. And I don't think anybody knows exactly when, but we're going to get back to baseball and you got to be ready. And these guys, hopefully, everyone has an opportunity to have a place to throw and be able to continue to get off the mound. Obviously, that's a big thing. And guys, especially our team, I know we got a group of, you know, very professional guys and everyone's taking care of themselves. I know that they're going to be, you know, chomping at the bit to get going. And they're all taking care of themselves and, you know, get your work in that you can. And so we can get back together and I'm sure get back down the Tampa and start ramping up and get the season going whenever we get to go ahead. And you're a special advisor for the Yankees now. You make appearances at spring training. I wanted to get your impressions on Garrett Cole. Now, I know you already have a connection because you were part of the Yankees recruiting process for Cole and he talked about how excited he was to get the opportunity to pick your brain. What have you observed about Cole and the way he goes about his business? Because I've covered you, Clemens, Cone, Jimmy Key, David Wells, a ton of really good pitchers, really professional pitchers. This guy seems to be so meticulous, so into the art and the craft of pitching. He is. I haven't met anyone quite like him yet, for sure. You know, when I met with him in California in those meetings, you know, you got a sense of, wow, this guy's got a real good idea of what he wants to do and his thoughts and the way his mind works. And it's pretty special, which was obviously not only just what he's done in the past, but another reason why I think the Yankees were so excited about getting him and just knowing just, you know, how meticulous. And he's going to continue to try to, you know, shape his craft and develop as a pitcher and to be able to get down to spring training and then just to see him in the environment with the team. I mean, he loves being out there. He's watching everybody throw. He's watching everyone work. And then what I was really impressed with was the way when he stepped on the mound. He kind of had a little bit of an edge about him whenever he was doing his bullpen work, when he was just throwing to our hitters. And I mean, I love that. You don't see, that's a little bit of old school to me. You don't see that a whole lot in a lot of the younger players, or at least I haven't seen that, you know. And so that's what I really, really was impressed with about kind of carried a chip on his shoulder, even when he's throwing a bullpen and stuff like that. So it's pretty cool to watch. Did that edge remind you of anybody else you might know? Maybe a guy who used to put his glove right above his nose and just have his eyes peeking out. That guy maybe? Yeah, I mean, you know, really the edge. What comes to my mind was maybe not necessarily me, but Roger, you know, Roger had an edge like that when he worked. And so it's pretty special to watch for sure. Andy, I know how humble a guy you are, but when you look back at your career, and it was an amazing career, second most wins by a lefty in Yankee history, more than 250 wins, five World Series titles. Do you ever allow yourself to think about that journey and how successful and how enjoyable that journey was? You know, you don't really just, you don't really, I guess, sit back and think about it an awful lot. You know, what's pretty cool, Jack, is just like, just my kids now, you know, obviously I have three boys and my daughter. But my youngest son now, Luke, you know, he's 15, gonna be 15 in June, he's 14 right now. But you know, over the last few months, he kind of, I guess, follows a little bit of stuff on the internet and he'll, he'll send a thing like, you know, just something like, that shows where I did, you know, as far as Yankee rankings and stuff like that. And I'll just be like, well, you didn't think that was pretty good player or whatever, you know, so, you know, you'll stop and think about it then. And, but, you know, it's cool. There's no doubt about it. It was a special time, a special place. And we did some special things and, and man, what was I blessed, that's for sure. When you're working your way through the minor leagues and you finally get to the Yankees and have an impact in 95, I know you're worried about what's going on in your world, but in your, in your wildest dreams, are you even thinking about, well, Bernie Williams is a pretty good center fielder. I've seen Mariano and Jeter and Pasada. And if we could all align and get there, this could turn into something really special. You know, I'd be lying if I said in 95, that's what I was thinking. In 95, I was in survival mode. It's like, you're trying so hard to make it to the big leagues and you're looking around. And of course, Bernie was already up there, right? So Bernie was a young player. Bernie was one of those guys you kind of looked at as like, he came through the system. Maybe I can get up there and I can get up there with Bernie, you know, and, and be part of a, you know, a young group of players up there. But, you know, in 95, I don't believe, you know, I was thinking that now you start rolling around in 96 and we win that World Series and stuff like that. And then Derek's there the whole season, Georgie, you know, comes along and Mariano is doing what he's doing. Then you start kind of thinking we got a special kind of group here. But early on, it's just so hard to envision that just because you don't know, you just don't know what it's going to look like. You don't really know yet if you're really an established player. You know, I mean, after your rookie year, people start talking about what about the sophomore slump? You know, you're like, oh my gosh, you know, what if, what if this was a few, you know, a fluke in 1995? You know, so there's just so much stuff that goes on in your head. And baseball is such a, your confidence is such a roller coaster ride, you know, and so, you know, those are kind of the things I know early in my career that I was thinking about. When I spoke to Mariano the other day, he talked about the brotherhood that you guys shared and how it doesn't matter how long it's been since you've seen each other. But when you guys connect again, it's almost as if you're back in pinstripes. It's almost as if you guys are trying to win another title. How would you describe that brotherhood that you share with some really close friends and close teammates? I would. I mean, I would describe it just like that. I mean, Mariano's dead on. I mean, you know, we'll go, you know, months without maybe speaking. And when we get together, it's just like, it's just like, you know, it was like it was yesterday. It really is. And we stay in touch, you know, I speak with the guys during this time and just checked on each other, making sure everybody's doing good. But we've been through so much. We've spent so much time with each other over the years. And even though now, you know, we'll see each other two times a year, you know, over the past six years, let's just say, you just feel like that, you know, that anytime you're together, you've been together just like it was when we were playing together in, you know, you know, 96 or 2008 or whatever it was. And so I love those guys. I love each and every one of them like their family. And we got an extremely special close bond, that's for sure. So I'm going to channel Luke here for a second. If Luke came up to you and said, hey, Dad, there are a lot of talented teams, but not every talented team wins a championship. You won five. What did those teams have besides talent? What made those teams stand out above and beyond talent? Because you know, as well as I do, there are some talented teams that never get to the World Series, never win a World Series. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. Well, first of all, what would really I think about is I think about the grit that our guys had. I mean, we had a really, really good group of grinders, guys that we had great leadership from up above. We had an owner that Mr. Steinbrenner, you know, expected excellence out of us and really, you know, wouldn't accept anything less. And I think that always kept us on an edge and kept us knowing that, hey, if we don't get this done, if we're not doing it, they're going to get somebody to come in here and to do it for us. I think we all really felt like that. And I think it's hard to kind of find that. It's real easy to get complacent. And I feel like we never allowed ourselves to get complacent. And even if we brought in new players, new group of guys, I just felt like that we were always pushing. And look, I was a starting pitcher, so I pitched once every fifth day. And I wish I could give, you know, myself, you know, a lot, a lot of credit for that. And I mean, I feel like I did my part during that run for sure. But when you have guys like Derek and Georgie, you know, during that run, these guys played every single day in the intensity, the focus that they brought to the game every single night was it was just amazing to watch. And I really step out of it and you look back. It's really, that was what was so special about it is just the desire, the will, the drive to win that they brought on a daily basis along with, you know, I feel like the other group of guys that we had kind of got everybody pushing in the right direction. And of course, leadership mentioned, you know, the Steinberg, then of course, Joe Tory leading us at that time and his desire to win and focus on what we wanted to try to do and keeping us all kind of in line and pulling in the right direction. Andy, I think I've told you this before, and I included this in the book that I wrote with David Cohn, but David said that you had the ability on the mound to work your way to one pitch that you were going to deceive that hitter, and you were going to tease that hitter. But eventually you were going to get to say, say, say a cutter in that that guy wasn't going to be able to expecting and you were going to get that ground ball to third five, four, three double play and you were out of it. And he said it was a very daring, very gambling way to pitch. How did you, how did you adopt that strategy and why did that sometimes work for you? Well, really, you know, I can't say that, you know, I adopted that strategy. It really, I felt like pitching for me and I've told you guys this, I think a hundred times, I didn't have the best stuff. I mean, I didn't throw the hardest. My breaking ball wasn't the sharpest. I did develop, I feel like a really good cutter. But even coming up through the minor leagues, you know, my pitching coach in AAA, I remember Nardi Contreras telling me, you know, you're going to be able to be successful because you're able to make big pitches when they count. And so even in the minor leagues, I got in a lot of trouble, but I felt like I was always able, when I needed to lock it in, when I was needed to relax and be able to make that big pitch. I felt like I was able to do it. And I felt like really making big pitches is really what kind of carried me through my career because, you know, I didn't strike out a lot of guys. You know, I didn't have a super, super low walk, you know, you know, ratio. So I had guys on base. I think the league almost hit 300 off of me. So I needed, I needed double plays and I needed to make big pitches and get a big ground ball in special times when a lot of other pitchers didn't have to do that. So really and truly, when I hear you talk about, when I talk about, you know, the game being a grind for me in a battle, it really was. And a lot of times, you know, I was trying to pitch around the zone a little bit and pitch to corners because I couldn't quite throw to the middle of the plate because my stuff wasn't as electric as a lot of other guys. So it really was like me maybe nibbling, it seemed like at times, but I'm like, dude, this is just a guy out there grinding, trying to make a perfect pitch to get through this. So, you know, David obviously is a student of the game and sees, you know, a lot of what's going on out there. And that's how I felt. I mean, I felt like I was trying to make a pitch always. I'm trying to make a pitch, trying to make a pitch. And then thank goodness that I was able in big times to be able to relax and be able to put pitches where I needed to to get big double plays and stuff like that.