Mike Piazza’s election to the Baseball Hall of Fame has not ended questions about his suspected use of performance-enhancing drugs during his career.
It was front and center Friday when Piazza was made available on a conference call nine days before his induction into Cooperstown.
Piazza’s career statistics — a .308 batting average, 437 home runs and 1,335 RBI — suggested first-ballot election, but it took four tries for him to receive the required percentage of votes.
Asked by former New York Times reporter and columnist Murray Chass, who now runs a website, to comment on what Chass called “the subject of much speculation about steroid use for years,’’ Piazza, 47, credited Major League Baseball for instituting drug testing, saying, “I think there’s no question that the game has moved on and I think it’s better because of that and I’m just glad and honored that, you know, the writers have voted me into the Hall and it’s something I’m really much looking forward to and very very excited about.”
Asked specifically by Chass as to whether or not he used steroids, Piazza responded, “I’ve addressed that many times in the past, sir. Thank you.”
Piazza played from 1992 to 2007. MLB began testing for banned substances in 2003.
In Piazza’s 2013 book “Long Shot,’’ he wrote, “Apparently, my career was a story that nobody cared to believe. Apparently, my success was the work of steroids. Had to be. Those were the rumors.”
He did say in the book that he used androstenedione before it became banned by Major League Baseball. He also wrote that he used amphetamines until MLB banned them in 2006.
Former commissioner Fay Vincent, who held the job from 1989 to 1992, has reservations about Piazza entering the Hall.
“Piazza’s the one that troubles me the most,’’ Vincent said in a phone interview last week. “I have the great suspicions that he was using the drugs and yet he’s in the Hall of Fame. And he denies it. I have this neurotic worry that 10 years from now he is going to write a book and disclose it all and what are we going to do? I mean it’s very hard to reverse these decisions.’’
Piazza, who played for the Mets from 1998 to 2005 will have his number 31 retired by the team on July 30.
“The whole intensity of the New York market was a difficult transition for me,’’ Piazza said, “but I knew that there was a reason I was there and I knew there was a reason I had to see it through and eventually was able to relax and start swinging the bat well, not pressing so much. . . . I can honestly say the eight years that I was in New York, there wasn’t one day that when we lost the game I wasn’t unhappy and I really wanted to prove my worth, prove to people that I was very serious about doing the best I can and trying, then obviously as I said, basically prove to them what I was worth and I wanted to perform for the fans and obviously win.’’
- Newsday