John Rocker does not like to hide his enthusiasm on the mound.

"I don't really understand why my opinion of somebody else is so darn important, but a lot of Mets fans took it really personally," said Rocker. "They sit there and say, quite frankly, the most vulgar things I have ever heard in my life about me, and their opinion doesn't bother me a bit, why does my opinion of them bother them so darn much?"

An edited transcript of Rocker's conversation follows.

Miller: What is it like when you see, on videotape, the kind of things that you do out there on the field, the fist-pumping, the emotion?

Rocker: I don't know, part of me says I am kind of ashamed of myself, because I get kind of out bent out of shape. Part of me is ashamed of myself because I have turned into one of those guys I have harassed during my few years of playing, and part of me just knows that that is the way that I express my intensity and emotion and aggression. It's the backbone of the way I pitch.

Miller: So you wouldn't like yourself as an opponent?

	“	They just see me in an opposing uniform and they want to say vulgar remarks about my mom and a sister I don't have and a wife I don't have. If you are going to heckle me, at least do a little research and find out my background. Don't be completely ignorant about it. ”
		— John Rocker

Rocker: If I saw myself on television, I would say "Look at this idiot, who does this guy think he is?"

Miller: How much do you think that plays into your relationship with the fans, especially the New York fans?

Rocker: Probably a lot. The home fans cheer for me, probably love it, because they love to see the Braves and see me beat the other team. The home fans of a visiting club, when I go into Shea Stadium or Yankee Stadium, or wherever, see all my antics and my emotions, they want to beat me as bad as anything they ever wanted. That probably antagonizes them and irritates them about as bad as it can.

Miller: How much interplay is there between you and the fans?

Rocker: Probably more than there should be. I should and hopefully with age and maturity, I am just 24 years old, and hopefully with age and maturity I will probably grow out of that.

Miller: Wait a minute, you turned 25 earlier this month?

Rocker: But all season I was 24, I played as a 24 year old all year, and maybe with age I will grow out of the hearing the comments and everything and put that behind me and live in a little shell and not notice it. Right now I can sit there and be on the mound, in Shea Stadium and getting spit at and getting things thrown at me, beer trying to get poured at me, I can stop in mid-throwing process, trying to get ready to go into the game, yell at a fan, turn back up, throw three more pitches go into the game, and pitch fine, it doesn't faze me a bit.

Miller: Does it fire you up, does it do any good for you?

Rocker: Yes it does. I love when I set myself up. I don't go into saying things about the fans in the New York Post or Daily News and say, "Whoops, I didn't mean to say that." I knew exactly what I was doing, saying the stuff I said. I knew when I went up to New York I would either have to put up or shut up and I knew it was a do or die thing: either I pitch good or I am just going to get reamed in the paper. I took it upon myself as a challenge and really got motivated and I like pitching like that.

Miller: Did the banner headlines in New York papers go to far?

Rocker: I think they made a little bigger deal out of it than they probably should have. All I was really trying to say is I don't think it is right, all we are trying to do is play a simple baseball game... It is the same game you play when you're six years old to the time you are 40 if you are fortunate enough to play that long. To try to go out and do, I am doing my job, I get paid to do it, that is how I go out and make my living, that's how I pay my bills. To go out to the office, so to speak, and have people throw D-cell batteries at you, if something like that hit you in the head, you are going to feel it. The odds of you pitching after you get hit in the head with a D-cell battery aren't very good, and they are throwing at you just as hard as they can, in most cases they are too drunk and to besides themselves to actually do damage with them, but you know there are the possibilities. They are spitting at you, sexually explicit remarks about your mothers, sister, wives; that kind of stuff doesn't need to be said. It's a baseball game; treat it like what it is, you (pointing to Miller) come here and work at ESPN every day, you sit in your office and do that kind of thing. When was the last time somebody came in and threw something at you and said this and that about your mother. If it doesn't happen to you why should it happen to me. It doesn't happen anywhere else in the entire county except New York. I don't think it should happen, I don't think it is right.

Miller: Part of it you bring on yourself. You could disarm the whole thing.

Rocker: I brought added intensity on myself, more comments, more jeers, more throwing things on myself, but the comments that I started out with were from previous experiences where nobody knew who I was. I was just a lonely rookie coming to Shea Stadium, and nobody knows who I am. They just see me in an opposing uniform and they want to say vulgar remarks about my mom and a sister I don't have and a wife I don't have. If you are going to heckle me, at least do a little research and find out my background. Don't be completely ignorant about it.

Miller: Where you surprised about all the added security that came about in New York during the playoffs?

Rocker: Not really, because some of the stuff you hear about up there, anything is possible up there. I'm sure a lot of the fans don't know this, but during the game there was a SWAT team, the NYPD SWAT team snipers stationed at each light. Each sniper would have a certain section of the stadium, a spotter with them, and they would just comb the section the whole game for anybody that brought guns in or knives in or whatever. To have a trained marksman in the field, just to allow two teams to play a simple game of baseball, what are things coming to when you got to take those measures to play a baseball game.

Miller: Bobby Cox did talk to you about the inflammatory comments that you made in the papers. What did he say to you?

Rocker: He never approached me, I sort of approached him. The conversation, really all it was, was an apology form me to him about how things had just gotten blown out of proportion, how even guys like Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, the first questions they were getting asked was, "What do you think about John Rocker's comments?" It wasn't about the NLCS and Mets versus the Braves, the two best teams in the National League. It was about "what does John Rocker think about the fans?" I really get confused, and it is really kind of funny to me, how people get wrapped up in my opinion. I don't really understand why my opinion of somebody else is so darn important, but a lot of Mets fans took it really personally. They sit there and say, quite frankly, the most vulgar things I have ever heard in my life about me, and their opinion doesn't bother me a bit, why does my opinion of them bother them so darn much?

Miller: During the playoffs, you got into a car accident with your Corvette, a really bad one, it's amazing you came out of there alive. Are you done with Corvettes?

Rocker (shakes his head): I'll be getting a new one any day..

Miller: Did you learn anything from that experience?

Rocker: I'll be the first to say I like to drive fast, I like to have cars that have that kind of horsepower that the Corvette's got. But I was behind a flatbed truck, and if you know anything about flatbed trucks, I'm not going to be going too fast behind one of those. All I simply did is change lanes to pass this flatbed truck, and my back end sort of fishtailed and I don't know if was an uneven pavement or whatever, but I sort of fishtailed and ended up with my front right end under the back left tire of the that flatbed.