MLB

MLB Playoffs Playoffs Index Scouting Reports Playoff History

Scores   Schedules   Standings   Statistics   Transactions   Injuries: AL | NL   Players   Weekly Lineup   Message Board   Minor Leagues   MLB Stat Search Clubhouses

Teams Anaheim Arizona Atlanta Baltimore Boston Chicago Sox Chicago Cubs Cincinnati Cleveland Colorado Detroit Florida Houston Kansas City Los Angeles Milwaukee Minnesota Montreal NY Yankees NY Mets Oakland Philadelphia Pittsburgh San Diego San Francisco Seattle St. Louis Tampa Bay Texas Toronto

Sport Sections

	Monday, October 2
	What they're saying about John Rocker ESPN.com
	"It's disappointing. But I lived with Rocker for one year and he always was kind of crazy, but not to say stuff like that. I don't know if it came from his heart, or it came from his head or just stupidness." --Andruw Jones "When we all get together here at spring training, I think everyone will be focused on baseball. Everything kind of takes care of itself once you show up here and get into your daily routine." --Walt Weiss Wed, January 12 I think it can't help but be a distraction to the Braves. Wherever they go, newspapermen will want to talk about it. It's a story that won't die for a long time. How will it affect the team's chemistry? We've seen cases like the A's of the '70s, where there were a lot of factions in the clubhouse and the team won. Reggie and Nettles with the Yankees had their problems. One of the biggest things in a major league clubhouse is respect. A lot of veteran players will tell you that earning the respect of your teammates is a lot more important than public adulation. What Rocker did on the field was phenomenal. He got the opportunity to be the closer because of the injury to Kerry Ligtenberg and did the job. However, from my understanding he's been a bit of a loose cannon since his minor league days. So, if he's willing to listen to some of the veteran leaders like Walt Weiss and Andres Galarraga -- who have my admiration from the days when I worked for the Rockies -- that is a start. But he's going to have to win over guys like Brian Jordan, and I don't know how you go about doing that. You can't erase what's been done, so it will be difficult to win the respect back of his teammates. If he's just giving lip service in his apologies, the players will see through that. "I wouldn't want to be in the same county with him (right now). You don't come out and say things like that without some people taking some extreme objection." --Chipper Jones "I'm glad he's not our problem." --Yankees GM Brian Cashman But (Bud) Selig would be just as wrong to cave into political pressure now and suspend the pitcher. The Braves would be equally foolish to release Rocker before spring training. Doing so would spare him the real punishment he deserves, and that is facing the Braves in a closed-door meeting and telling them he's sorry. --Bob Klapisch, ESPN.com There is, of course, no excuse for the asinine verbal vomit spewed by John Rocker in a recent "interview" with a Sports Illustrated reporter. Rocker's comments might well become a distraction this spring, thanks in part to a pack of rabid media that would love to beat this particular story to death in the otherwise boring weeks ahead. That said, there might not be a more professional organization than the Braves, and they'll likely have put all this behind them before the Ides of March. On a more fundamental level, what are we afraid of here? The man, or the words? Does anyone really think that John Rocker presents a physical danger to anyone who's not crowding the plate? Probably not. So it's the words. And if it's the words that are dangerous, should we be angry with Rocker, or with the news organizations that so happily disseminated those words? As for talk of somehow "firing" Rocker, I would like to quote a wise man of my acquaintance, who once wrote, "The principle that citizens should be punished for 'erroneous speech' is a short road to hell." --Rob Neyer, ESPN.com Don't send him to sensitivity training. Don't enroll him in anger-management class. Don't fine him. Don't even suspend him. Get rid of him. John Rocker should have no place on the Atlanta Braves. He has dishonored the organization. He has offended everyone with a functioning mind. He has stamped himself as a buffoon. Get rid of him. --Mark Bradley, Atlanta Journal-Constitution This Rocker thing is getting sillier, and it has nothing to do with the man himself. We're talking about the comedy routine featuring those in the commissioner's office and the politburo of the Braves. What a scream these guys are. Soon after Rocker's comments on various social issues hit the pages of Sports Illustrated, those who run the Braves began their clumsy journey in the shadows to where they are now, and that is trying to justify keeping Rocker without looking foolish. --Terence Moore, Atlanta Journal-Constitution "Mr. Rocker's recent remarks made to a national magazine reporter were reprehensible and completely inexcusable. I am profoundly concerned about the nature of those comments as well as by certain other aspects of his behavior." --Commissioner Bud Selig It starts in the minor leagues where, unlike in basketball and football, many kids are thrown together without the benefit of a diverse college experience. Racial attitudes are not broken down, they are reinforced. Ignorance is not challenged, it is often embraced by others just as ignorant. On a bus in the Appalachian League. In a clubhouse in the Carolina League. Standing in the outfield on a warm night in Durham, or a cold day in Danville. It doesn't help that, unlike in basketball and football, most of the young players are white. Baseball needs to catch its players here. It needs to send the fancy psychologists not to John Rocker, but to the small towns and tiny clubhouses where there are teenagers who can still be taught. --Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times		ALSO SEE Rocker admits he sounded like 'a complete jerk' Klapisch: Rocker immature, not sick First Amendment doesn't protect Rocker AUDIO/VIDEO  Tom Glavine says that the Braves' clubhouse may not welcome Rocker. wav: 272 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6  Atlanta GM John Schuerholz says Rocker may not be accepted by his teammates. wav: 67 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6