Yankees: Andy Pettitte’s son’s pickoff move brings us so much joy
Former Yankees southpaw Andy Pettitte’s son proved he’s related this week.
Like father, like so–aw, man, while I was reciting that aphorism, Jared Pettitte caught me flat-footed!
As Yankees fans wait through an interminable slog to (hopefully!) see the elder Pettitte get elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame someday, it’s great to know that there’s a younger edition of the crafty lefty whose baseball journey is just beginning.
Yankees Universe, meet Jared, a fellow southpaw and redshirt junior on the Dallas Baptist University baseball team, thanks to the untimely cancellation of the 2020 campaign in mid-flight.
It doesn’t take much tape study to determine that the younger Pettitte shares some key similarities with his pops, and picked up all the right things during his youthful observation of the ex-Yankee.
After all, we’ve never seen a pickoff move quite like Andy’s, equipped with his trademark death glare, which always obscured which direction he was looking.
Jared’s version? Doesn’t have quite the same intimidation factor baked in, but according to this video, it’s equally effective.
Got ’em!
As for Pettitte’s opponent in this video? Well, he’s also got MLB bloodlines.
That’s Jeremy Wagner, son of Billy, who’s fighting the same relentless Hall of Fame fight, with slightly better results, as Jared’s dad.
Andy Pettitte’s son is a spitting image for Yankees fans.
Though both Wagner and Pettitte have become associated with Texas through the years, and both starred for the Astros, neither hails from the region originally. Wagner is a Texas native, and Pettitte was born in Baton Rouge, though he moved to the Lone Star State in third grade.
This is also notably the second Pettitte offspring to play college ball. Jared has moved from the Houston Cougars to DBU, a notable hotbed for Yankees pitching prospects in recent years (you may remember…Chance Adams), while Josh Pettitte pitched one season for Rice University in 2015 after tossing a no-no at Deer Park HS, also his father’s alma mater.
As for the elder Pettitte? He’s also learning from his elders these days, embodying George Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman by becoming a closer in free agent negotiations.
He reportedly starred in both the Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg negotiating rooms last winter, and helped steer Cole to the Yankees — after all, you do what your childhood hero asks you to, right?
Hopefully, Jared Pettitte has a future in this game so Yankees fans can continue getting blasts from the past like this one.
Having another Dallas Baptist arm in the pipeline would, uh, also help us forget about Adams’ career in the Bronx.