[kfkorn]

Phil Garner wants Andy Pettite to stay in Houston:

"I certainly am tainted by my biased feeling that he wants to be in Houston. He needs to be in Houston and we want him to be in Houston," Garner said Tuesday at the baseball winter meetings. "And his family is dying for him to be in Houston. His kids are pining every day at school wondering, 'Oh, daddy, please don't go anywhere else. Stay in Houston.' I could hear it all over the city."

"The first few times I talked to him, he wasn't sure he was going to play," Garner said. "He said he was going to make the decision later. The most recent conversation, he was more than leaning, he was really considering coming back and playing. I guess he hadn't made a definitive decision -- 'Yes, I'm definitely coming back to play' -- but it was more like, 'I'm getting very seriously interested in doing it."'

Pettitte's agents, Randy and Alan Hendricks, have said they expect Pettitte to make a decision by the end of the month on whether to return for a 13th major league season.

Garner hopes Pettitte wants to pitch in Houston