Pettitte takes the mound for the final time

Andy Pettitte is scheduled to start Thursday in the season finale for New Jersey in what will be the final appearance of his DMBL career.

Pettitte will complete his 16th consecutive season in DMBL, the last three with New Jersey. His longest tenure -- seven seasons -- was spent with his original franchise, breaking in with Jerusalem in 1996 and moving with the team to Stanhope in 2001. He spent the 2003 and 2004 seasons with Newark before three years with Carolina, and a single season with the Tampa Bay Plunkers.

He's won double-digit games in nine of his 16 seasons, reaching a career-high 15 in four different years. This will be the fourth straight season, and fifth in the last six, that Pettitte has made at least 32 starts.

Although he recently passed Greg Maddux and David Wells to move into 2nd place all-time in losses, Pettitte remains a better than .500 pitcher for his career, thanks to ranking 11th all-time in wins. He enters today's finale at 146-143 (.505).

Heading into his final start, Pettitte's career DMBL rankings are as follows (*active league leader):
- 5th in games started*
- 9th in innings pitched*
- 11th in strikeouts
- 16th in complete games
- 7th in shutouts
He'll be eligible for the DMBL Hall of Fame in 2016.