The plugin checks the amount of connections and outputs 'SHOW STATUS' information so I guess that won't fit in ping-like output. BTW, have a look at the MySQL plugins here:
http://www.nagiosexchange.org/cgi-bi...index.html;d=1 because there's differences like check_mysqld allows graphing, check_mysql_perf mauybe better for monitoring performance counters etc, etc.
