Luke Pettitte, the son of New York Yankees legend Andy Pettitte, is already a college baseball player — and he has wasted no time dominating his opponents as his father did for 18 MLB seasons.
Luke Pettitte is a freshman at Dallas Baptist University. Despite being rated as the top first baseman in Texas by Perfect Game as a senior in high school, Pettitte has been used mostly as a pitcher by DBU to this point.
On Tuesday, Pettitte received the first start of his collegiate career — and proceeded to throw two scoreless innings against Baylor.
It's the first start of his college career?
Luke Pettitte takes the mound tonight in Waco! pic.twitter.com/6LP8NjD57t
— DBU Baseball (@DBU_Baseball) March 5, 2024
While it's strange to see a Pettitte pitching with his right hand, the fact that Luke Pettitte struck out the side in his collegiate pitching debut and then had a successful start on Tuesday proves that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Luke Pettitte strikes out the side in his DBU debut!
Middle of the 8th
DBU 5
SEMO 4#FindAWay | #DBUBaseball pic.twitter.com/5BQlpUYXCV— DBU Baseball (@DBU_Baseball) February 18, 2024
Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised to see the son of a three-time All-Star, five-time World Series champion and 256-game-winner in the MLB following in his father's footsteps, considering all that Pettitte surely taught Luke while the latter grew up.
Of course, even with his dad's invaluable knowledge readily accessible, becoming a Division 1 pitcher (and dominating once there) is still a tough task — especially considering the pressure that Pettitte must be under to live up to his father's name.
Speaking of Luke's father, the Hall of Fame hopeful was on his sixth ballot for Cooperstown this year — but only received 13.5% of votes, and therefore wasn't one of the three players selected.
Despite his impressive career accolades, Pettitte — who has the most postseason starts in MLB history — doesn't have a good shot at making the Hall of Fame because of his admitted usage of performance-enhancing drugs during his playing career.
Given how strict of a stance the Hall of Fame is taking against steroids, this likely means that Pettitte will never have his own plaque enshrined in Cooperstown.
However, that's probably the last thing on Pettitte's mind at the moment. His focus is probably more on watching Luke dominate Division 1 hitters, and doing whatever he can to help his son ascend into professional baseball.
