New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Another Rocker shocker

Wednesday, May 11th, 2005

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the winner and still champion of the politically incorrect sports world, a vast and untamed universe.
It is not Shaquille O'Neal, who speaks of women as if they were some feeble and unworthy species. It is not Barry Bonds, who just doesn't care that everybody finds him so unsavory. It is not those stubborn Marquette students, hellbent on insulting the Native American population, demanding a return to an old nickname best forgotten.

No, these contenders are hardly worth mentioning in the same column with the only mouth that really matters, the one belonging to that master of upside-down causes and persecution complexes, John Rocker.

In his latest wacky diatribe, spoken between very occasional relief outings for the minor-league Long Island Ducks in Central Islip, Rocker told ESPN.com in his elegant fashion that he has endured more dire circumstances than black baseball pioneers, Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron.

"I've taken a lot of crap from a lot of people," Rocker said. "Probably more than anybody in the history of this sport. I know Hank and Jackie took a good deal of crap, but I guarantee it wasn't for six years. I just keep thinking: How much am I supposed to take?"

Rocker is on a first-name basis with Robinson and Aaron, and apparently has studied all about the racial taunts and closed doors these guys faced because of the color of their skin, not because they once insulted an entire city. He must know about the restaurants that wouldn't serve them, the hotels that wouldn't lodge them, about the way they were forced to smile with great dignity on the field in the face of some extraordinarily ugly taunts.

Rocker must also know that neither Robinson nor Aaron ever told these vicious hecklers that they were excrement, or ordered them to kiss anyone's butt.

Yet this is how Rocker sees himself, as a great baseball martyr, fighting the good fight against the vicious establishment. He is a victim, and we are the naysayers.

"After two years of not pitching, I really figured that I wouldn't have to hear the boos and cursing and the extremely derogatory remarks," Rocker said. "I really figured I would be treated like a human being.

"But it's still there - the same force that it's always been. Most anybody else would have quit five years ago. I don't have to deal with the media scrutiny, the fan scrutiny, the mental persecution I get put through, the hatred and negative energy on a daily basis."

He doesn't have to be doing this, he keeps telling us. He's a millionaire, if you haven't heard. Yet he does. What a hero. You just want him to be a hero somewhere else, go find himself a red state, go hunting.

You have to understand something about this latest silliness. It has become increasingly difficult for Rocker to place his foot in his mouth, and yet he has managed. He is protected by a publicist, Debi Curzio, who screens his interviews, who monitors these talks, who helps shape his public statements.

The Duck clubhouse, once a welcome place open to the media, is now closed. A reporter who wishes to speak with a Duck player, who wants to give one of these guys some desperately needed publicity, must put in a special request to meet with the athlete away from Rocker's locker, which may not be seen by human eye.

You just shake your head, wonder how this championship minor league team was afflicted with such an infestation. And as in most such cases, you start with the owner.

Frank Boulton has a strong working relationship with Joe Sambito, the former Met and Rocker's agent. "He brought us a lot of guys," Boulton said. Sambito called Boulton, and there you have it: a player that half the home fans despise and heckle.

"You're always going to have an idiot or two," Boulton said. He was talking about his fans, not his pitcher.

Just remember, the next time Rocker takes the mound in Central Islip: If you jeer him, you are erecting barriers that Jackie and Hank never faced, never hurdled.

The man is shameless, champion of the uncouth. In his own mind, he suffers more than the minorities he insults on a regular basis.

Unreal.

When he started a few weeks ago, I was thinking it might be nice if he kept expressing remorse, and even came to the mets! Seems we all love a comeback, and perhaps his "experience" could lead to him doing interviews describing his journey,and the education he recieved form his idot remarks 5 years ago.

But this loser does not get it. Its all about him!

Im thinking he should be raped by the very people he has put down!

Marcelos Wallace could get mid-evil on his ass!

Anybody wish to contribute to what kind of punishment Rocker should receive?

Posted by Nalod:

When he started a few weeks ago, I was thinking it might be nice if he kept expressing remorse, and even came to the mets! Seems we all love a comeback, and perhaps his "experience" could lead to him doing interviews describing his journey,and the education he recieved form his idot remarks 5 years ago.

But this loser does not get it. Its all about him!

Im thinking he should be raped by the very people he has put down!

Marcelos Wallace could get mid-evil on his ass!

Anybody wish to contribute to what kind of punishment Rocker should receive?

I am a Yankee fan from the Bronx now living in Atlanta, I had to endure this jackass some years back. He is a idiot, plain and simple, I just wish he goes away, baseball has past him by, he can no longer pitch worth a darn which was the only thing that kept the braves from giving him the heave ho a long time ago.. Now he is just another struggling pitcher on the comeback, except he has baggage, a huge ego, and a big mouth.. No one needs him!!