NY Times: “A Big Hitter’s Baseball Life, Without the Bombshells”

In the end, there were no such bombshells in [Mike] Piazza’s book, “Long Shot” (Simon & Schuster), which was written by Lonnie Wheeler and was scheduled to be released this week. But there are a good number of intriguing disclosures as he recounts his improbable rise to stardom, pushed every step of the way by the support and insistence of his father, Vince.

Piazza writes that he was a brat at times during his baseball career, selfish, moody and immature. He says that he was occasionally a poor teammate, aloof and entirely too consumed by what was going on in his world. He says that when he received his biggest payday - a seven-year, $91 million deal with the Mets - he was frightened to the point of paralysis. [...]

“It shouldn’t be assumed that every big hitter of the generation used steroids,” Piazza says in the book. “I didn’t.” [...]

Of drugs, he writes: “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 admits to using androstenedione as part of a supplement pack until the outcry over Mark McGwire’s use of it forced him to “phase it out.” Baseball later banned the substance.

He also writes that he briefly experimented with amphetamines until they were banned in 2006. And he describes hearing about human growth hormone, doing some research and asking the Mets’ former trainer, Fred Hina, if teams would start distributing it, unaware that it was a banned substance. According to the book, Hina said he would look into it and a day or two later told Piazza it was not a good idea.