Andy Pettitte's February 18 press conference was an afternoon of softball questions from a friendly home-crowd press. Sample: "If you had to do it all over again, how would you deal with the issue of HGH [human growth hormone]?" Answer: "If I could do it over, I probably wouldn't do it."

Then came a fastball down the middle: "Have you heard from Major League Baseball, and do you have any idea that you might get suspended?" Pettitte took a half-swing: "I have not heard from Major League Baseball, and I don't think I'll be suspended."

So far, the media have taken that response with their bats on their shoulders.

It's a good question: Why hasn't Andy Pettitte heard from MLB, and why hasn't there been talk of a suspension? In his deposition to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Pettitte admitted that his father injected him with HGH in 2004. (And surely the most bizarre single piece of evidence to emerge during the entire hearing process is that Pettitte's dad stuck a needle in his son's ass.) In admitting this, Pettitte was in effect also admitting that he had lied to the Mitchell Commission—and thus to Major League Baseball—about the extent of his drug use.

Moreover, Pettitte was admitting to a crime. Though HGH wasn't banned from baseball under the Basic Agreement existing at the time—it wouldn't be added to the list of prohibited substances until 2005—it was and remains illegal unless prescribed for one of three rare diseases. Pettitte has clarified that he used HGH without a prescription. This means that he has admitted to the illegal use of HGH not once but twice, in 2002 and 2004. So where are MLB, the FDA, and the FBI?

It's easy to see who doesn't want to have this issue delved into: Pettitte, who stands to lose a one-year, $16 million contract with the Yankees, and the Yankees themselves. Having been snookered by Omar Minaya and the Mets in the Johan Santana deal, the pitching-hungry Yankees are desperate to hold onto Pettitte, the only capable left-hander on the staff. And there are other parties anxious for closure on the Pettitte story, namely commissioner Bud Selig and Major League Baseball.

As everyone noticed, the February 13 Congressional hearings quickly broke down along partisan lines, with the Republicans, almost to a man and woman, backing Clemens's credibility while the Democrats tried to undermine him. This is because those partisan lines had been drawn well before the hearings began. Selig, determined to preserve MLB's exemption from antitrust laws—and thus its status as a self-governing body—needed what appeared to be solid evidence that baseball was dealing with its drug problem. Congress, anxious to get away from questions about the war, immigration, and the recession, welcomed the distraction. Selig's genius was in putting a former Democratic senator, George Mitchell, in charge of the league's investigation. Senator Mitchell is a close friend of Representative Henry Waxman, chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, who was adamant, as anyone could see, about protecting Mitchell's reputation.