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Rocker re-entry Braves closer greeted warmly in return to action
Posted: Wednesday March 15, 2000 04:59 AM
KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) -- One youngster carried a sign. Other Atlanta Braves fans showed their support for John Rocker with a standing ovation. In his first action since the World Series -- and his controversial magazine interview -- the reliever pitched a perfect ninth inning Tuesday night to finish the Braves' 4-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers. "It just seemed like another night to me. I pitched 75 games last year, 10, 15 spring training games," the left-hander said. Rocker sprinted to the mound from the right-field bullpen with a record crowd of 10,078, including a young boy with a "Rocker for President" placard, standing and cheering. He threw three straight balls before throwing strikes on seven of his last 10 pitches. "Once again, the media is out here making a big deal out of it," Rocker said. "It was an inning of a meaningless spring training game." Rocker retired Gregg Jefferies on a popup to third, Javier Cardona on a grounder to third, then struck out Robert Fick. "What can you say? the guy hasn't pitched, yet he got three guys out," Fick said. "That's good. Good for him and good for that team." Rocker was suspended by for all of spring training and the first 28 days of the season by commissioner Bud Selig after the reliever's disparaging comments about minorities, gays and foreigners were published. But an arbitrator allowed him to report March 2 and cut the regular-season suspension to two weeks. Braves manager Bobby Cox also said it didn't look like missing the first two weeks of spring training hurt Rocker, who saved 38 games to help Atlanta win the NL pennant last season. "He threw like we thought he was going to throw," Cox said. "It was his first time out, but it looked like his fifth." The manager also said the reception from the crowd, the largest for a Braves home game since the team moved its spring training camp to Disney World in 1998, was not a surprise to him. "I kind of thought that would happen," Cox said. "Everybody's willing to give people a second chance. He's getting his second chance." Rocker said the response confirmed what he already knew. "It finally showed you people in the media that not everybody is against me," he said. "I've been running into nothing but positives ever since all this stuff happened ... And yet every night I turn the TV on and see how horrible a person everyone says I am. I don't see it in the public when I'm out. Now maybe some people will say, 'Not everyone is against him,' like the majority of the media is trying to make it be." Before the game, Rocker worked his way up the right-field foul line, signing autographs and occasionally chatting with fans crowding a railing for a closer view. Two amusement park security guards, dressed in black-and-white striped referee's shirts, moved along with the left-hander and kept a pack of photographers and television cameramen out of the way. Earlier, Braves general manager John Schuerholz stood behind home plate and wondered aloud what the fuss was all about. Schuerholz insisted he didn't understand why a one-inning outing would attract so much attention. "That's past. That's history," Schuerholz said of the controversy. "He made remarks. They were dealt with by the commissioner's office ... Tonight is a issue of a relief pitcher getting his arm in shape." Many of the fans crowding the railing in right field an hour before the game were men and women jockeying for position with youngsters extending their arms with programs, bats, balls, gloves and baseball cards to sign. Rocker chatted with the Disney security guards accompanying him as he worked his way up the line toward the bullpen during infield practice. He asked them to move television crews back at one point, but otherwise did not acknowledge the cameras tracking his moves. Most of Atlanta's regulars had showered and left the complex by the end of the game. Rocker finished his post-game routine and showered before speaking with reporters, he said, "out of respect for Cox."
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