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Why John Rocker is Not in the Majors By Alex Alonso for Streetgangs Magazine                             July 8, 2003 I was under the impression that the former ace pitcher for the Atlanta Braves lost his job because of his insensitive comments he made about being on a New York subway when in town playing the Mets.   In 1999, Rocker's first full major league season, he had 38 saves with a 2.49 ERA as the Atlanta Braves went to the World Series. After that season, is when he made disparaging remarks about gays, minorities and others in a Sports Illustrated article.  After that, his career went into a tailspin and according to Larry Elder he is not in baseball because of those comments. I believed most of this information from what I heard about John Rocker on Larry Elder’s radio show.  In fact on July 8, 2003 in the first hour of his show he stated that John Rocker is not pitching in the majors because of those comments he said, and he told a caller that regardless of his apology, he would not have a job in baseball primarily because of the comments of 1999.  Elder’s point is that there is a double standard that ruins the career of whites when they make offensive comments but allows other ethnic minorities carte blanche when making racial epithets.  To a certain extent Mr. Elder is correct because Charles Barkley, Charlie Ward, Shaquille O’Neal (2003) and Dusty Baker (2003) have all made racial comments that have gone unchecked.  Elder believes that John Rocker is not in baseball from pressure on account of his comments.   After watching a 6-minute piece on ESPN I had a better understanding why John Rocker was struggling in the minors and was not the powerful pitcher he was in 1999 with the Braves.  Yes there is much talk about his comments, but the ESPN piece focused on his fastball, that went from 98 mph to 92 mph.  Anyone who has ever played professionally knows the difference in speed, and how much easier it is to catch up to a pitch in the low 90s than to one that is almost 100 mph. If one looks at his stats, his ERA, walks, and hits allowed have all increased since his stellar season of 1999. His stats show that he was performing well after the comments he made in 1999 but there were some changes.   The Braves traded him half way into the 2001 season, about 1½ years after he made the comments.  He was 24 years when he completed his first full season with the Braves and now at age 28 he appears to be done as a pitcher.  Is it because of his comments? Absolutely not!  His skills have plainly diminished and this often occurs to power pitchers.  He has been relying on his slider, but the pitch lacks bite. Opponents hit .299 against Rocker in the minors this year, not the kind of figure a team is looking for from its closer. When he had 62 saves with Atlanta in 1999-2000, opponents hit only .193 against him. Rocker does nothing to help himself on the mound, and in the last two seasons he has committed five errors on just 19 chances. Why is John Rocker not pitching in the Big Leagues now? Bad attitude Because he made racially insensitive comments His pitching skills have diminished Another reason   Results :: Polls According to Rob Neyer, his performance and what has happened to his career has nothing to do with those comments.  In Neyer’s ESPN article entitled  Don't believe all the talk about Rocker (April 11, 2003) he clearly shows that Rocker did pitch well for the Braves before and after the comments, but he was barely getting by as a great pitcher.  The Braves must have known this and traded him on June 22, 2001.  Neyer stated, “The truth is that he really hasn't been the same since Sports Illustrated; somehow it just doesn't show up in the "result stats" (in this case, saves and ERA). Somehow he squeaked by with the Braves even though he really wasn't pitching particularly well. I'll be pretty surprised if Rocker ever gets back to where he was in 1999, but then I never thought he was really that good anyway. He always seemed to me like a pitcher who was just barely in control, of both his fastball and himself. And that's not the sort of pitcher who is likely to be successful for long.”   Just an examination of these facts reveals that Larry Elder is wrong about John Rocker. He just does not have the skills to compete in the majors.  On June 27, 2003, Rocker was released by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ Double-A team in Orlando, where he was 0-1 with a 9.15 ERA in 17 games. He allowed 23 runs -- 20 earned -- 23 hits and 26 walks over 19 2/3 innings.  The left-hander, who was signed to a minor league contract April 10, appeared in two games earlier this season for the Devil Rays, giving up one run, two hits and three walks in one inning.  He was an average player that made above average offensive comments and because he never had real skill, he is out of baseball.  One of the reasons guys like O’Neal and Baker can make racial epithets without being fired or traded is because they are great at what they do.  If Randy Johnson, a white pitcher for the Arizona Diamond Backs made a racial comment, most likely he will continue to be a Diamond Back because he is that good. Rocker may attempt another comeback, but he will be hard-pressed to find a steady job in the majors.               Below are his comments that appeared in Sports Illustrated: "Imagine having to take the (Number) 7 train to the ballpark, looking like you're (riding through) Beirut next to some kid with purple hair next to some queer with AIDS right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids."  He described his experience in New York as, "The biggest thing I don't like about New York are the foreigners. I'm not a very big fan of foreigners. You can walk an entire block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English. Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there. How the hell did they get in this country?"                                     Why Do You think John Rocker is not in major league baseball anymore????, Register free for our forums and tell us what you think. News Topics | Home | Research | History | Blood Gangs | Crip Gangs | People| Life in a Gang | Gallery | Iraqi Cards | Memorial | Migration | Graffiti | Resume| Injunctions Homicides | Maps | California Prisons | Contact

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