Rocker Says He Might Quit Baseball
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In his first public comments since a confrontation with a Sports Illustrated reporter, an angry John Rocker today denied threatening the writer and indicated that he might not report to Richmond.
In a radio interview on 96 Rock, the Braves relief pitcher also said he was thinking about quitting baseball, returning to college and becoming a stockbroker.
But most of the lengthy interview with Eric Haessler and Larry Wachs, co-hosts of "The Regular Guys" show, focused on his run-in Sunday with Jeff Pearlman.
"For a minute and a half, I yelled at him,'' Rocker said. "I didn't use profanity. I told him what I thought a bad article it was. . . . I told him a lot of stuff he put in the article didn't need to be said."
When asked why he felt compelled to yell at Pearlman in the first place, Rocker said he thought that the sportswriter was at fault for the public outcry against his bigoted remarks in a December issue of the magazine. Rocker also said he thought that Pearlman should have given him an apology.
"He, of course, put the blame for everything on me. He said he was just doing his job," Rocker said.
"Instead of having a little sympathy for the pain and suffering he caused somebody else. And after all that, I scold this guy for a minute and a half, and instead of standing there and taking it like a man, he has to run back and say John Rocker yelled at me. Looking back, maybe I shouldn't have [yelled at Pearlman]. But the only repercussions that guy got to face was to get scolded for a minute and a half. Instead of being a man and saying 'I'm sorry for everything you've been through."
When pressed by Haessler and Wachs on being overheard telling Pearlman, "You know what I can do to you,'' Rocker denied saying it.
Rocker also said he was ''tired of dealing'' with the attention from the media about his controversial remarks.
"You can only politely decline so many times,'' Rocker said. "Every second or third question is about that. They don't have any respect for your wishes. They're trying to stir up a can of worms."
The Braves fined Rocker $5,000 for the incident and said they were sending him to AAA Richmond to work out his pitching problems with controlling the baseball.
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