“According to several sources, when the subject of performance enhancing was broached with reporters he especially trusted, Mike Piazza fessed up. “Sure, I use,” he told one. “But in limited doses, and not all that often.” (Piazza has denied using performance-enhancing drugs, but there has always been speculation.)

Whether or not it was Piazza’s intent, the tactic was brilliant: By letting the media know, of the record, Piazza made the information that much harder to report. Writers saw his bulging muscles, his acne-covered back. They certainly heard the under-the-breath comments from other major league players, some who considered Piazza’s success to be 100 percent chemically delivered.

“He’s a guy who did it, and everybody knows it,” Reggie Jefferson, the longtime major league first baseman, told Pearlman.

“It’s amazing how all these names, like Roger Clemens, are brought up, yet Mike Piazza goes untouched.”

Pearlman quotes an anonymous major league veteran, who played against Piazza as saying, “There was nothing more obvious than Mike on steroids… Everyone talked about it, everyone knew it.”

Pearlman adds, “When asked, on a scale of 1 to 10, to grade the odds that Piazza had used performance enhancers,” the player told him, “A 12.”

…i’m not sure what to say… i mean, i think i have been pretty clear by now that i just don’t care about the past and steroids… it is what it is… sadly, i just assume every one did it, and i move on… knowing pearlman is true or false will not alter how much i enjoyed watching the late 90’s Mets…

…also, i just can’t tolerate the phony outrage from fans and media who do their best to care about this ‘issue,’ because i know in my heart of hearts that if piazza stepped to the plate against Mariano Rivera in the 2000 World Series, then stepped out, admitted he used steroids and then stepped back in the box, the same number of fans would have cheered him on regardless… so, how can i pretend to deal with this now…

…all i care about today is that the game as a business does its best to keep itself clean and on the level, assuming it wants to be clean and on the level… this way, i know the opposition is equal to my team, and, additionally, so men who do not want to hurt their bodies can have the same opportunity to succeed as people who might be willing to take that risk…

Meanwhile, Schoeneweis told the Daily News, “I never received anything from Florida. I’m not going to comment. I never even heard of it.”

…at this point, to me, this is more of a White Sox story than a Mets-and-their-relief-pitcher story, since the alleged act occurred roughly three years before shoney came to shea…however, from a personnel stand point, this is just another man in a long line of acquisitions by this team that continue to end up with this headline, and that has got to be addressed whether it is their own fault or not…

…lastly, and this is just a hunch, but every time i read one of these stories, be it this one, or the one about Troy Glaus, etc, i just keep getting this weird feeling that the team’s are far more culpable in these stories than we are yet aware of…i’m not suggesting that the players were totally in the dark, oblivious to what they were doing, but i just have this gut feeling that they may not have been totally aware of exactly what they were taking, you know, sort of like, ‘hey, the trainer is a professional, he works for the team, who gave this to the trainer, and he says to take this, it will make me recover faster, etc, so, okay, i’ll take it,’ type approach, all while knowing it could be shady, but may not be, as well…again, this should not minimize their role, but it could expand the blame, that’s all i am saying…

…for what it’s worth, i am also stunned by the level of speed that is used in baseball, which was once amphetamines, or ‘greenies,’ but is now an unhealthy obsession with Red Bull, caffeine pills, and the like, which is typically followed by alcohol after the game to take the edge off…for more on this, listen to Buster Olney, at ESPN, who is very alarmed by the level of post-game drinking in baseball and how it is condoned by the teams…i also understand that anti-inflammatory medication is eaten like tic-tacs…i’m sure their livers will be thrilled by their behavior one day…it’s an odd culture, and the players tend to get the brunt of the fan’s wrath, but i just have a hard time believing that the players are always operating on their own…again, just a hunch…