Early Life
Pettitte was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is of Italian and Cajun descent, the younger of two children born to Tommy and JoAnn Pettitte. He attended Deer Park High School in Deer Park, Texas. Pettitte pitched Deer Park to within one win of the state title. He also played center and nose guard for the school's football team.
The Yankees selected Pettitte in the 22nd round of the 1990 MLB draft. Recruited by San Jacinto College North in Houston, Texas, he opted to play college baseball when coach Wayne Graham compared him to Roger Clemens. At San Jacinto, Pettitte won eight of ten decisions.
As Pettitte enrolled in a junior college rather than a four-year school, the Yankees retained the right to sign him as a draft-and-follow prospect. On May 25, 1991, he signed with the Yankees, receiving an $80,000 signing bonus ($136,506 in current dollar terms).
Read more about this topic: Andy Pettitte
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“Very early in our children’s lives we will be forced to realize that the “perfect” untroubled life we’d like for them is just a fantasy. In daily living, tears and fights and doing things we don’t want to do are all part of our human ways of developing into adults.”
—Fred Rogers (20th century)
“There a captive sat in chains
Crooning ditties treasured well
From his Afric’s torrid plains.
Sole estate his sire bequeathed,—
Hapless sire to hapless son,—
Was the wailing song he breathed,
And his chain when life was done.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)