The baseball blogosphere has been abuzz all week about the performance enhancing drug allegations against Mike Piazza in Jeff Pearlman’s Roger Clemens biography “The Rocket That Fell to Earth,” even if the mainstream media seems to be pretending the story doesn’t exist.
Last Sunday, Murray Chass broke the story about the book’s charges. On Tuesday, the day the book was released, I was the first to note the book’s allegation that Piazza reportedly admitted to sportswriters that he took performance-enhancing drugs. Six hours later, Deadspin wrote about those charges as well. And most Met blogs have also weighed in on the allegations.
Yet while Pearlman’s book has gotten plenty of buzz in the mainstream media, his Piazza charges have been pretty much completely ignored by those same reporters. No tabloid headlines, no investigations of the allegations, no followups, nothing. Very strange.
I’d hate to think that reporters are not going after that story because they like Piazza (Neal Travis’ infamous blind item aside, Mike had a great relationship with the press). Or because some of their brethren may be complicit in keeping Piazza’s alleged juicing quiet.
Even Joel Sherman, who did ask Piazza a few tough steroid-related questions in February after the A-Rod story broke, hasn’t done a followup after the Pearlman book release. Why not?
Is it too much to expect one reporter to actually 1) write in the paper about what Pearlman’s book says, 2) ask Piazza for a reaction to it, or maybe even 3) investigate the story a little further? Heck, given that, according to Pearlman’s book, Piazza “fessed up” to “reporters he especially trusted,” you’d think there would be one reporter going on the record to confirm or deny that charge. Or to see if Mike is one of the 103 who tested positive in 2003.
And for argument’s sake, wouldn’t you think, if Piazza were innocent, some reporter would try to help clear his name?
Instead, it’s as if most sports reporters are sticking their fingers in their ears and going “La, la, la, I can’t hear you” when it comes to the possibility that Mike Piazza used performance-enhancing-drugs. Unreal.
Why is the mainstream media ignoring the Mike Piazza story? Leave us a comment!
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