Murray Chass, the former New York Times writer who you may recall hammered Mike Piazza and his backne last March, is on the warpath again. What’s his beef with Piazza? While we confess to not reading Chass regularly, the only athlete he’s ever blogged about aggressively seems to be Piazza. The man wants blood! Or an admission of guilt, it seems. Guess Tommy Lasorda’s words mean nothing to Chass.

His moment of truth will come as he works on the book he is writing with Lonnie Wheeler. Piazza received an $800,000 advance from Simon and Schuster for the book, but the writer who was originally going to write it with him, Michael Bamberger, withdrew when Piazza refused to commit in writing that he would tell the true story about him and steroids.

Bamberger is a well-respected writer at SI. Pretty interesting that he refused to commit to the project.

I spoke with another editor at Simon and Schuster, Bob Bender, who said the project is “under way,” but it doesn’t have a publication date. Asked if the book would cover steroids, Bender said. “I haven’t seen any portion of the book, but it’s my expectation that it will be addressed.”

Why should Piazza talk about steroids? He’s retired and doesn’t owe the media – especially not an angry guy like Murray Chass – anything. That being said, he’d also be very smart to take $800k and then reveal whatever skeletons may be in the closet.

Most importantly, what does Jose Canseco think about all this?

ANOTHER LOOK AT MIKE PIAZZA AND STEROIDS [Murray Chass]