Beliefnet’s Michael Krass had a chance to ask Mike Piazza “If Savatage and Dream Theatre were both drowning and you could only save one….?”, but instead quizzed the A’s DH/catcher about the Sultan Of Surly.



As a person of faith, what is your perspective on the steroid scandal in baseball?

There is a lot of swirling and a lot of innuendo, a lot of rumor, a lot of hearsay. And, I think, to get back to balance on a larger issue, Major League Baseball has sort of admitted and sort of acknowledged that there could have been abuse by some players in the past.

It’s kind of like going back and reinvestigating the Kennedy assassination. It’s impossible to really put a finger on where it derailed and where it went wrong. And I think that everybody, in a sense, was realizing that someone–the people and the higher ups–were looking the other way. And some of the players didn’t really acknowledge that it was so much of a bad stigma. And so, I think that just the fact of not dealing with it at the time was probably the biggest issue that I see at fault. But I think now people–and especially in Major League Baseball–they’ve acknowledged it and we have very strict testing now. They were just testing the other day.

And what do you think about the debate over Barry Bond breaking the home run record, whether to list it in the records with an asterisk?

I think Barry Bonds is the greatest player I’ve ever seen. And probably even without the controversy around him, [one of] the top three players in the history of the game. He’s got seven MVPs. He had the highest, I think, on-base percentage last year in the National League.

And so, it’s tough. People get very wrapped up into the record and what it would stand for and whatnot. There’s just so much hype about it, and so much controversy and debate about it. I think it’s kind of like with President Bush. He’s very controversial now. But the true test, or the judge, of his legacy will be 15, 20 years down the line. It’s almost impossible now to really form a true evaluation of the situation, because it’s so incendiary. Other things have to settle down until we can really put history in perspective. It’s very muddied now. Things have to settle, and then we’ll be able to see clear.

Surely I’m not the only reader frustrated that Mike is clearly saving his most insightful comments for Yard Work?