Yes, hard is good. When I was in high school, I spent a lot of time on my knees playing with balls. I guess it was only natural that I became a catcher.
Mike PiazzaYou can't get real happy or real depressed when you play baseball. Baseball is a great sport in that it offers a player a lot of opportunities for atonement.
Mike PiazzaIt's easy for me not to go to Mass on the road. But I've made a fundamental decision. I'm going to be dedicated. I'm going to make the time. I'm going to get up, if that means getting up at seven on a Sunday morning before a day game and do it, I'm going to do it.
Mike PiazzaWhen you're 25, you can eat hamburgers and pizza and drink beer and stay out all night and come out the next day and drink a couple cups of coffee and just play. If I did that today, my heart would stop and I'd need a stretcher and an IV.
Mike PiazzaI found it hugely insulting that people believed I'd go so far out of my way - living with Playmates, vacationing with actresses, showing up at nightclubs - to act out a lifestyle that would amount to a charade. If I was gay, I'd be gay all the way.
Mike PiazzaWhen he (Roger Clemens) threw the bat (during Game 2 of the 2000 World Series), I basically walked out and kept asking him what his problem was. He really had no response. I was trying to figure out whether it was intentional or not. I was going to ask him. If it was, then obviously he really no had response. I was more shocked and confused than anything.
Mike Piazza