Stan Kasten, president of the Braves and the NBA's Atlanta Hawks, was a guest recently on ESPN's Up Close with Gary Miller. Kasten discussed Rocker's return, and whether the Braves would trade the left-handed reliever. An edited transcript of Kasten's March 2 comments follows.

Miller: How have things developed with John Rocker's first day at camp?

Kasten: It has been a hectic first day, obviously. He walked in and he had a lot of conversations that he had to have, with Bobby, with the players individually, with the group as a whole. He talked to the media for just a little bit of time. All of that has proceeded as we expected. You know, John has had conversations with many of those people all through the last few months. So much of that ground had already been covered, but he did have a lot that he had to say to the rest of the group. The rest of the group was eager to hear what he had to say. There still is a lot of it that has to happen, but the reaction universally from players coming out of those rooms has been that they feel much better about it, they are willing to accept John back. I think things have to be clear about the understandings of what they expect from him as a teammate, but I think he has made some very good steps today and there is a job ahead of him, but I think it will find a way to work itself out in time.

Miller: What is your sense, Stan, did it go as well as you would have expected under the circumstances?

Kasten: Boy, it is hard to say that. We've have had such bizarre circumstances. Yeah, I think today went just fine. It has been a very difficult two months for all of us. Everyone associated with the Braves, in the front office and all of the players, we've kind of been torn and in the middle of a flurry of opinion on both sides of this issue, and none of us has done anything wrong, yet we have been in the eye of the storm. We are very happy to have this phase of it over with and to have John rejoin the team under these circumstances. We are all just eager to just move past this and get back to playing baseball and talking about baseball.

Miller: Stan, Bud Selig was very disappointed in the ruling by the arbitrator and said that it didn't pay attention to the sensitivities of baseball as an entity and the fans that John offended with his comments. What is your feeling about the reduction (of the suspension) and did you talk to John and say, "you know, it would be in the best interest of you and this team to just take your lumps and do it" and what was John's reaction if you did suggest that?

Kasten: I did suggest that to John early on in the process when I met with him, before there had been a decision by the commissioner and a number of his teammates told him the same thing. I was very comfortable living with the decision of Bud Selig. I am very comfortable living with the decision of the arbitrator. I think we all just need to find a way to heal the wounds that have been opened, both on our team and in our community and move past it. That again, I can't say this often enough, we are all about playing baseball and having fans watch baseball and that is what we want to get back to just as soon as we can.

Miller: Everyone has an opinion on this thing and they have ever since the article hit in December, but on the other side of it, some of the community activists and organizations such as the NAACP have spoken out and given their opinions on what they thinks the Braves should do. Reverend Tim McDonald said you should trade John Rocker.

Kasten: Well I know Rev. McDonald and there is no question that he feels great sincerity in the things he said. I have to disagree with him though, there is nothing about this from the time that it began that suggests that racism is okay within baseball, that bigotry or homophobia is okay within baseball. Quite the contrary, I think everyone has acted within the bounds of their authority to send a clear message that it's not okay. Rev. McDonald continues to disagree with what the commissioner and the arbitrator have decided, but I don't think they disagree about how objectionable these remarks were from the time that they were uttered.

Miller: Your general manager has discussed trading him, what would it solve to trade him to some other team?

Kasten: Well, let me say this, there's not a day goes by with any general manager, with any of the three teams that we have here that they don't talk about trades, so I wouldn't make too much of that. I'm sure there have been discussions about John and about probably every other player on the roster, but to suggest or to expect a trade is imminent I just think would be a mistake because that's not the case.

Miller: Would it be better for the Braves, though, to close this chapter and have him on another team?

Kasten: Well, let's see how the chapter plays out. If everything falls into place and relationships find their balance and we go on and are able to put a successful team on the field with a player who is accepted by our team and by our community, then that will be just fine. If that's not the situation, then we'll deal with that. But I'm not going to anticipate the worst. We're going to hope for the best here and then deal with whatever else we find.

Miller: In other issues that are involved here, many families feel that certain areas of certain ballparks are not very friendly or a good environment for families, what do you think the game should do about that?

Kasten: I actually have very strong feelings on that. I have felt, and I said so last fall because I felt this even before last fall, that sometimes we have allowed, we're guilty, we have allowed too much to go on in the way of bad fan conduct. When things happen in the stands that would constitute an assault if they were done on the street, we can't have that happen, our players don't deserve it and the other fans, the 99.9 percent of fans who are just there to enjoy the game, also don't deserve it. So we need to also do an increasingly better job about policing that and making our environments fan friendly. It doesn't again at all impact the problems that John created for himself, but it's a separate issue, and one that I take very seriously.

Miller: Every year there are demonstrations against teams like the Braves and the Indians, and the tomahawk chop is controversial every year, has there been any consideration to changing any of that in relation to this issue?

Kasten: No, those issues are not related.

Miller: So there has been no consideration that it is out of place. What is the feeling of the organization about the Native American groups that say "Braves" doesn't belong as a team name?

Kasten: Well, we have had many discussions and many meetings with groups from time to time as they expressed their views to us, but over the years we have adopted a policy of the things we will do and the things we won't do, and none of that is going to be changed by the article that was printed in December.

Miller: Have you put guidelines on John Rocker? Have you laid out how you want his behavior to go in line with Braves policy?

Kasten: Well, we've had an awful lot of discussions, both John Rocker and I, John Rocker much more with John Schuerholz and a lot of MLB people with John. We haven't had a lot of time today to sit down and talk about a better way to go, going forward, but we will because I think John could have handled himself better in October. We said it back then, and he certainly could have handled himself better in the article and just in general in life, I think. So, we will be discussing those issues. As you know, as part of this decision by the arbitrator, there is still a lot of counseling and training that has yet to be done as a part of this, and through that process I think we are going to come out with a result that is far better than where we began.

Miller: Stan you spent time studying psychology in your days in schooling.

Kasten: (Laughs) Not nearly enough Gary!

Miller: What can be gained by sending a guy to psychological counseling, how much can that help?

Kasten: Well, you know. I don't know exactly what kind of things will be touched on, it really depends, every person is different. But we do have a player here with a very good IQ, a very smart player, and I think he is able to understand, as you heard from him today, all of the damage that his remarks made. He has said repeatedly that they've been misinterpreted, that is not what he intended, and so with that spirit, I think some more education and more training might very well go a long way. I wouldn't want to prejudge it though one way or the other, I think it is a necessary thing, I think it is an important thing, and within that spirit I thought, and John Schuerholz thought, that it wouldn't be a bad thing for the whole organization to go through some of those sessions. So we had that for ourselves earlier that week, and I sat through it and I learned a thing or two, maybe even more than that, and I hope all the rest of the organization did as well.