By Josh Maurer & Will Flemming

I was sitting in the broadcast booth here at Frontier Field this morning a little before 11 o’clock. As I was browsing Twitter and catching up on the morning’s news, I noticed something far out of the ordinary. A black SUV emerged from the right field corner and began driving down the warning track towards home plate.

I stopped what I was doing and watched as it slowly made its way directly in front of my line of sight. The car came to a complete stop and parked on the warning track behind home plate. Then, a moment later, out of the passenger’s door walked Yankees’ great, Andy Pettitte.

The 6-foot-5, 225 pound left-hander with 240 major league wins and 2,251 strikeouts will pitch against the PawSox in today’s series finale against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Originally scheduled to be played at Dwyer Stadium in Batavia, Ny. because of year-long construction at SWB’s ballpark, there has been such fan and media interest surrounding today’s game that the Yankees were forced to relocate it to Frontier Field in Rochester.

“I expect to be as good as I was,” Pettitte told reporters when he announced he was coming back to baseball. (USA Today)

With a capacity of roughly 2,600, Dwyer Stadium never stood a chance. By the end of the day when the Yankees announced Pettitte would be pitching in Rochester, the Red Wings had already sold over 9,000 tickets. Last report I heard is that over 14,000 tickets have been purchased for today’s contest. To accomodate the game, the Buffalo Bisons and Red Wings played a doubleheader last night and have today off.

The power of Andy Pettitte managed to kick the Red Wings out of their own ballpark.

Now 40-years-old, the lefty retired after the 2010 season to reportedly spend more time with his family. But in March, Pettitte signed a minor league contract with the Yankees and is working to get back to the major leagues. Multiple reports suggest that this will be his final minor league start before joining the Yankees. He’s already made four starts at the lower levels, most recently with Double-A Trenton.

Pettitte has created more headlines off the field than anywhere else lately. Today’s start will be his frist since testifying in the perjury trial against former teammate Roger Clemens. “The Rocket” is accused of lying to Congress in 2008 when saying he never used steroids or human growth hormone.

The SUV is now gone and the Yankees have started batting practice. This should be just like any other game.

-AG

@aaronmgoldsmith

agoldsmith@pawsox.com