Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Bamberger and photographer V.J. Lovero were with Mike Piazza when the All-Star catcher found out that he had been traded to the Florida Marlins. Bamberger and Lovero witnessed the turmoil that surrounded Piazza during a strange and traumatic week. Bamberger's 10-page feature appears in the current issue, which reaches newsstands and subscribers beginning Wednesday.

Bamberger spoke with CNN/SI about the experience.

CNN/SI: How did you manage to be in the right place at the right time?

Michael Bamberger: I'd seen Piazza at spring training, and I was interested in doing a long piece about him—I'd written about Piazza when I was with The Philadelphia Inquirer. So I was simply going out to Los Angeles to work on this bonus piece. V.J. and I had been hanging out with Piazza from Monday on, and then late Thursday, after Thursday night's game, this news broke, and the whole dimension of the story changed very quickly.

Last Friday with his mural as an eerie backdrop, Piazza left Dodger Stadium—as a Dodger—for the last time.    (V. J. Lovero)

CNN/SI: You observed every event in the story?

Bamberger: Everything except for the meeting with [Dodgers general manager] Fred Claire. Piazza re-created that for me.

CNN/SI: What was Piazza's reaction to the trade? From the piece it seems like he was pretty calm.

Bamberger: That's really the thing I came away with, how incredibly controlled he was the whole time—that is, until he actually left Dodger Stadium in the first inning Friday night. He turned on the car radio and the game was on, and I think that was the first time it really hit him, the idea that he was not going to be a Dodger for life. And then there was this sort of torrent of words from him and some emotions that I hadn't seen earlier—or even after for that matter.

CNN/SI: Did Piazza and his agent, Dan Lozano, realize the Dodgers were at the point where they felt they had to make a deal?

Bamberger: He was totally unprepared for it. He and Lozano figured that if he was ever going to get traded or be the talk of trade discussions, the Dodgers would give him a last-chance, drop-dead offer. So that's why they were so surprised.

He had no desire to be traded. He had a desire to test the free-agent market, but even given that, he might well have chosen to remain a Dodger.

CNN/SI: What about Piazza's reaction about being traded specifically to the Marlins?

Bamberger: It didn't register that much because he knows it's temporary. It's just like a weird feeling. I think what he says is 100 percent true—he's got no other choice but to go down there and do everything he possibly can. He wants to play for a contending team, and he's playing for the most distressed team in baseball. So that's a bad situation, but more tolerable because he knows how short-term it is.

I think Piazza's and Lozano's first goal is to get traded to a team with which they can immediately sign a long-term deal.

CNN/SI: The piece opens with a scene in a diner, in which Piazza mimicks a TV analyst commenting on his supposedly deteriorating knees. Can Piazza continue to catch for the next six or seven years?

Bamberger: Piazza is fanatical about fitness. He has never had any knee problems, and there is just nothing to suggest that he has any knee problems whatsoever, so I think that's why that sticks in his craw a little bit. Also, if people think he has knee problems, that could seriously affect his marketability. He caught 152 games last year, and he's caught just about every game this year. He knows he's not the best catcher in the world so one of the ways he compensates for that is by being ready to catch every day.

CNN/SI: Do you think he'd be better off going to an American League team where he can DH or play first?

Bamberger: Piazza is not a pathetic catcher—he's not graceful, I don't think he's going to win you too many games—but he blocks the plate well, he makes the throw to second pretty well, he seems to struggle with the throw to third, he blocks pitches pretty well. I think he wouldn't rule out a situation where he might be a platooning catcher who DH'd the rest of the time—in other words, catching maybe 100-odd games. Wherever he'd go he'd want to be the primary catcher; he wouldn't necessarily have to be the 150-games-a-year catcher, but he definitely has enough pride in his skills that he'd want to catch.

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