Comments on: Murray Chass continues to beat on Mike Piazza over steroids

By: Justice Scalia

Justice Scalia — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 13:06:43 +0000

I had horrrible cystic acne on my back and shoulders into my 30s.
A trip to a dermatologist, and he put me on a regimen of Acutane, which cleared it up permanently in about 3 months.
Who’s to say Piazza didn’t visit the dermo in the offseason, when he got tired of the painful cysts, and bloodied shirts?
Bring the proof against him or shut up about it and put him in the Hall.
End of story.

By: Professor Longnose

Professor Longnose — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:51:21 +0000

Steroids can cause back acne–there’s plenty of information about that available. Therefore, back acne is evidence of steroid use. It’s not proof, but it IS evidence. You may not think it’s convincing (and by itself, it isn’t), but it IS a mark of steroid use. I really can’t see how you don’t think it’s evidence.

By: Yankee49

Yankee49 — Fri, 28 May 2010 01:31:56 +0000

For the record, Murray Chass is a non-voting member of the Hall. He received the Spink Award, but no longer votes, as he has stated in interviews and online.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:21:53 +0000

We don’t know 100% on Mauer, obviously. But, we can look at different eras, pervasive use in the mid-to-late 90s, different testing regimes, etc.. There are many more reasons to think Mauer is clean than Piazza. That’s no proof, but it will probably be the best we’ve got, unless we see that 2003 list some day. I guess I’d be surprised of Piazza makes it into the hall first ballot, or at all. The thing going in Piazza’s favor is those batting averages-it’s hard to imagine steroids doing that much for straight average.

By: Richard Dansky

Richard Dansky — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:42:03 +0000

So his evidence is that a big dude from suburban Philly had complexion problems? Clearly Mr. Chass has never been to Philly – or seen what horsemeat and velveeta can do to the fairest epidermis.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:36:01 +0000

How do you know Joe Mauer’s aren’t?

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:10:49 +0000

Those HRs matter though, and so does his roiding, if only because the argument we’re going to be having for the next 10 years is “who was the greatest catcher of all time, Joe Mauer or Mike Piazza?” and Piazza’s numbers were probably steroid induced.

By: nps6724

nps6724 — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:52:29 +0000

From 1993-2002 (ages 24-33), Piazza hit 35, 24, 32, 36, 40, 32, 40, 38, 36, and 33 HRs. He had played over 1000 games by this point (1,316 at catcher to be exact) and most catchers drop off around 1000 games caught. He never had a huge spike in HRs, never suffered the types of injuries typically associated with steroids (in fact, he played in 135 or more games in 8 of those 10 seasons and at least 100 in all 10), his body never grew abnormally to unheard-of size, and his OPS+ was above 100 in all but 1 season, his last one.
There is NOTHING that points to steroids for Piazza besides the fact he hit a ton of HRs. He was consistent throughout his career, plain and simple.
FWIW this is coming from a Braves fan who hated Mike during the heated Mets-Braves rivalry.

By: scatterbrian

scatterbrian — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:46:40 +0000

“Now as naive as I might have been about steroids, the one thing I knew was that use of steroids supposedly causes the user to have acne on his back.”
His argument is based on knowing something supposedly exists.

By: Garbage Sniffer

Garbage Sniffer — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:01:11 +0000

How about the so-called champs of the blosox of 04 , and 07. A total group of roid heads.
Nasty Boy, you gone and changed handles? You've posted this exact same message about 63 times in the past two months. Not getting tired of it?

By: Church of the Perpetually Outraged

Church of the Perpetually Outraged — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:52:23 +0000

And the winner of the 2010 Geoff Baker Rigidity Award goes to Murray Chase!

By: Benny Blanco

Benny Blanco — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:32:30 +0000

Piazza was always a big guy. I saw him at Citifeild last week and he is still a big guy. Doesnt mean anything but correct me if you think I am wrong. Steroid use normally makes these guys bigger. Visibly bigger. Steroid accusation from a “journalist” with a Hall of Fame vote just on back acne? Makes you wonder what Chass has a against Piazza.

By: Alf3

Alf3 — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:24:45 +0000

I agree that we should move on, and I think most fans agree as well. The problem is that Hall of Fame voters like Murray Chass will not let it go. He, and others who think like him, will continue to not vote for anyone they think may have used PEDs. So a guy like Piazza, who has never tested positive, will be blackballed by Chass, et al despite his achievements.

By: john pileggi

john pileggi — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:11:41 +0000

Does anyone really care at this point? We know what the era of sterioids was, and the numbers (hitting and pitching) were impacted. Let’s move on.

By: partytime

partytime — Thu, 27 May 2010 11:53:54 +0000

How about the so-called champs of the blosox of 04 , and 07. A total group of roid heads.

By: trampslikeus

trampslikeus — Thu, 27 May 2010 11:32:44 +0000

I have no idea if Piazza juiced. What I DO know is that his major league power numbers (and this is from memory so I know someone will correct me if I’m wrong) never saw the type of sudden, unexplainable and huge. Like Bonds and Sosa. Palmeiro. Pudge Rodriguez. Brady Anderson. Boone when he suddenly drove in 141 runs in Seattle. There has never been a period in MLB history when so many so suddenly increased their power by so much. That was always the smoking gun I looked at first (well that and when a guy’s shoe size went from 10 and a half to 13). I’m just not buying this….and Chass is trash (hey, I made a rhyme) for saying it. These bozos can just write whatever they feel like, with no evidence or proof. They’re basically like us, the people who write their opinions on these pages…they don’t mean diddly but we don’t have a national platform to cause harm with. The difference between a journalist and a joke is, journalists use research and sources and stand as accountable for their words. This guy is a bum, plain and simple.

By: Andrew Vazzano

Andrew Vazzano — Thu, 27 May 2010 11:20:04 +0000

Don’t call what Murray Chass writes a “blog.” He’ll have your head for that.

By: Moses Green

Moses Green — Thu, 27 May 2010 11:16:05 +0000

You know who gets backne? Catchers with hairy backs. Check and check. Piazza’s backne probably disappeared around 2003, the last season he played as many as 63 games at catcher.
Murray Chass is a fool and a disgrace. Even his keyboard shudders now at the thought of his delusional ramblings.

By: Okobojicat

Okobojicat — Thu, 27 May 2010 11:03:01 +0000

No, its not evidence of anything at all related to steroids. Its evidence that Piazza had back acne. That’s it.
.
Evidence linking Piazza to steroids would be needles, or prescriptions or Jose Canseco saying “I shot up Piazza when he was in the minors” or something like that. There is nothing to that sort.
.
Acne is not evidence of steroids, its evidence of acne.

By: Professor Longnose

Professor Longnose — Thu, 27 May 2010 10:55:35 +0000

Back acne is evidence. It’s not a lot of evidence, and it certainly doesn’t prove anything by itself. But if there were a trial that for some reason was attempting to determine if Mike Piazza used steroids, couldn’t that be used as evidence?

By: Head Bee Guy

Head Bee Guy — Thu, 27 May 2010 10:51:52 +0000

So should I expect Ken Rosenthal to go ballistic on Chass, or should I not hold my breath?