Joe Torre toes the baseball party line and says that he was shocked, just shocked to learn that there may have been steroid use going on in the Yankee clubhouse. So while he finds time to call Alex Rodriguez selfish and Kevin Brown a beaten man, he doesn't have anything to say about the special relationship enjoyed by Brian McNamee, Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte. That doesn't mean his book just ignores the subject, though.
Former Yankee pitcher David Cone said that players openly speculated about the guys who were working out with McNamee because they grew dramatically bigger, stronger and leaner in short periods of time. The players would joke and say such players, identified as Clemens, Pettitte and maybe Mike Stanton, were on "Mac's program."
Clemens' use in that period of time has been alleged before and, at this point, fairly well documented. Stanton was important to the Yankee title teams, but revelations about him aren't going to drop any jaws. Pettitte, however, is still active and has long clung to the story that he only did HGH in 2004 to help recover from an injury. Cone stopped playing for the Yankees in 2000. That doesn't make a liar of Pettitte, but it does raise a suspicious eyebrow since Cone has him as one of the players on "Mac's program."
Cone works for the YES Network now, which could make for some curious interactions with his former teammate. We're still dealing with excerpts and snippets taken out of the book as a whole, so it's too soon to make a full judgment but it seems clear that the fallout will be wide when "The Yankee Years" hits a bookshelf near you.
