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 Saturday, October 16
Rocker hears it from fans, shuts down Mets
 
Associated Press

 NEW YORK -- Before the game, John Rocker gave autographs to the New York Mets fans. Afterwards, he pumped his fist at the crowd, then lingered on the field as a handful of fans shouted profanities at their target.

"The only way to shut anybody up is to come in and close the door," Rocker said Friday night after pitching a hitless ninth to complete the Atlanta Braves' 1-0 victory over the New York Mets.

"You can't slip up and say the things I've said and then go out and blow the game."

Rocker quieted most of the sellout crowd of 55,911, helping put the Mets down 3-0 in the best-of-7 National League Championship Series. For most of the night, he was their target.

"It's some of the most offensive things I ever heard. I couldn't even repeat them on TV, and I'm tired of hearing it," he said, "People will say a lot of stuff to you if there's a fence between you and them."

When Rocker walked out of the Atlanta dugout during batting practice, he was greeted by game-level booing. He walked down the third-base line toward left field, took off his cap and waved to the crowd a few times, then went to the front-row seats and started signing.

"It was about what I expected," Rocker said, holding up a page from a New York tabloid targeting his prior remarks. "It's a lot of fun to know that I can get in these people's heads and can get them to react the way I want them to. All that does is fire me up."

Rocker became a target by saying Mets fans were "stupid." He spent most of the game in the bullpen, watching fans react.

"Quarters, bottles, batteries. I think somebody threw a bagel," he said.

"The vulgarity you have to hear, the sexually explicit remarks, the objects being thrown at you, that kind of stuff is going too far."

Braves third baseman Chipper Jones enraged Mets fans last month when, after Atlanta dropped New York two games back with three to go, he said: "This is the next-best thing to winning the World Series."

Annoyed by taunts from the Shea Stadium fans, he responded in kind: "I told them to go home and put their Yankees stuff on."

Mets fans greeted him Friday with slow chants of "Lar-ry, Lar-ry," which is his given name, but one he doesn't like.

"It wasn't that bad. You tune it out," Jones said. "I told myself that I wasn't going to acknowledge any jeers or look at any signs or do anything that didn't have to do with between the white lines."

Many fans brought signs, among them:

  • "I Want To Fight John Rocker."

  • "Hey Rocker -- You Reek."

  • "Yo, Larry. Fuhget About It."

  • "Hey Chipper -- Heroes Don't Commit Adultery."

    The latter referred to an affair Jones admitted just before he and his wife began divorce proceedings.

    Rocker's latest remarks did not please Braves manager Bobby Cox, and the pitcher said he apologized to his manager.

    "Yeah, it irritates me," Cox said before the game. "I don't like it. I don't condone it. He was roughed up by the fans, I think, our first series here out in the outfield. And he's the type of guy that's going to give it right back to them. He's got to work on that. He's a great pitcher, a great competitor, but he needs to work on his player-fan relationships."
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