SAN DIEGO -- While hunting in Mexico last weekend, Ryan Klesko tried to impress on John Rocker that he's going to be the one standing in the line of fire this baseball season.

	Klesko

"He's got a tough year ahead of him," Klesko said of his friend and former teammate, who's been condemned by many for his disparaging remarks about immigrants, minorities and homosexuals. "He's going to have to take the heat, and he's going to have to understand a lot of people are upset with him. He's going to have to pay for it for a while."

Klesko met with the San Diego media on Wednesday for the first time since he and Bret Boone were traded from the Atlanta Braves to the Padres on Dec. 22. The subject quickly turned to Rocker, because Klesko has been one of the few in baseball to publicly support the relief pitcher.

Still, Klesko made it clear that his loyalty only goes so far.

"I don't agree with what he said at all," said Klesko, who added that Rocker "has too much redneck in him, I guess."

"All I can do is talk to him as a friend, try to help him understand that he can't just go out and say this stuff."

Rocker told Sports Illustrated last month that he would never play for a New York team because he didn't want to ride a train "next to some queer with AIDS." He also said, "I'm not a very big fan of foreigners. ... How the hell did they get in this country?" and he called a teammate a "fat monkey."

Rocker has since apologized and said he was not a racist. That wasn't enough to sway New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, who told the New York Post this week that he wouldn't sit in the same room with Rocker. Jeter's father is black and his mother is Irish.

After Rocker sparred with New York Mets fans during the playoffs, "he may have gotten a little attention and decided to take it to the next level and that really got him in trouble," Klesko said.

During their hunting trip, "I told him if he can just go out there and be himself instead of trying to make everybody think he's some type of different person, then he'll be all right, because he's really not like that. He does have a bit of a short fuse, but other than that, he's a good person."

Klesko thinks some of Rocker's remarks were taken out of context. But he also said: "I know John's good side. Maybe I didn't see his bad side."

Klesko won't be around to support Rocker during spring training. Braves pitcher Tom Glavine has said that Rocker will have some explaining to do to his teammates.

"There's so much going down with that team, losing (Andres) Galarraga and (Kerry) Ligtenberg" to injuries and illness, the first baseman said. "They seem to pull together when stuff like that happens. But this is a little different. This isn't injury stuff. It's a lot of chaos. To tell you the truth, I'm kind of glad to get out of there because of all of that."

Like Braves owner Ted Turner, Klesko thinks Rocker deserves a chance to atone for his remarks.

"There's got to be some forgiveness somewhere because people do make mistakes. He's made a pretty big one and he's going to have to try to change and show everybody that he's not the way everybody's perceived him to be."