FanHouse JohnRocker

Dear John Rocker,
Sincerely,
The Dugout

Saturday morning's Dugout, concerning the throwing around of profanities and racial slurs by a Mr. Rocker, is after the jump.

Update: Rocker responds.

It's been a while since we've had the pleasure of hearing about racist redneck John Rocker. He must have missed the spotlight, so he apparently decided to make a mockery of himself once again. Any concerns that, as a 34-year-old, he may have developed some maturity, should be alleviated.

Thursday night, Rocker attended the grand opening of W Buckhead Hotel in Atlanta. He ended up coming face-to-face with a local sports-talk radio personality -- Steak Shapiro -- who had been critical of Rocker's behavior in the past.

Most of the conversation about John Rocker's recent radio interviews have centered on his comments about Bud Selig, and in particular, Rocker's advice that the commish "do the world a favor and kill himself." Rocker doesn't appreciate Selig's attempts to portray himself as being unaware about baseball's steroid problem, claiming Selig was aware Rocker flunked a steroid test and did nothing about it. (Rocker fails to mention how MLB's CBA with the player's association didn't allow Selig to do anything at the time, but whatever ...)

But while the comments above received most of the attention yesterday, I think the bigger bombshell should be the fact that Rocker claims he actually received advice about how to "safely" do steroids at a Rangers' spring training session. From the AP:

Rocker said that doctors from management and the players' association, following a spring training talk with the Texas Rangers about steroids and other topics, pulled himself, A-Rod, Rafael Palmeiro and Ivan Rodriguez aside. Rocker was with the Rangers in 2002.

"Look guys, if you take one kind of steroid, you don't triple stack them and take them 10 months out of the year like Lyle Alzado did," Rocker said the doctors told them. "If you do it responsibly, it's not going to hurt you."

Rocker didn't name the doctors, but it certainly sounds like they were under the employment of either MLB or the player's association, doesn't it? If true, this definitely widens the scope of responsibility for the steroid problem from solely players and rogue trainers to include the actual league itself. If Congress insists on a dog-and-pony show involving Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens, why can't they also force Rocker, A-Rod and Pudge in to testify?

UPDATE: ESPN ran this story yesterday evening with the "Bud Selig is a clown that should die" quote, which they then pulled from their story later in the evening. The quote is still in the New York Daily News, though no other sources are reporting it. We will certainly keep you updated in our quest to discover whether or not Rocker actually thinks Selig is a clown.

SECOND UPDATE: Atlanta radio station Rock 100.5 has posted the podcast of its interview with Rocker. The rip on Selig happens at the 11:35 mark.

As if baseball's whole steroid saga couldn't get any more ridiculous, John Rocker has now inserted himself back into the discussion. The former Major League pitcher (at right with girlfriend Alicia Marie), you'll recall, was heavily criticized for making statements to Sports Illustrated in 2000 that were viewed as insensitive to many groups. He's in the limelight again as he gave interviews to two different radio stations in Atlanta Monday and, get this, said some incredibly inflammatory things. The quote everyone will be talking about Tuesday is Rocker actually saying, "Bud Selig is a clown and should do the entire world a favor and kill himself."

Then comes the real news:

Later Monday, he told Atlanta sports talk radio station 680 The Fan that "between 40 to 50 percent of baseball players are on steroids" and "in 2000 Bud Selig knew John Rocker was taking the juice."

Last March, Rocker told ESPN Radio that, by his own guess, "less than 10 percent" of players were using illegal performance-enhancing substances while he was in the majors.

So, you're telling me that John Rocker is a blowhard that will say anything to get people to pay attention to him? I feel shocked! As much as people wanted and received their pound of flesh from the Mitchell Report, it's done nothing but make baseball look bad since its release. Without even talking about the ridiculous Clemens/McNamee saga, the report has given an open door to slimeballs like Rocker and Jose Canseco to make a quick buck and stay in the news, which they're gleefully doing. How many black eyes can one sport give itself?
Sorry, No Photos

There are some names that are surprising to see attached to the massive drug scandal baseball has undergone in the past few years. Matt Lawton, for example. Having watched him play for the Pirates for the better part of a year, I genuinely did not see that one coming. Others are more obvious. Gary Matthews Jr., for example. Well, gee, a guy puts up 100 more total bases than any other year in his career in his walk year, I wonder what happened. Then there's John Rocker.

"I never had a prescription for any HGH," Rocker told ESPN Radio's "The Herd." "If somebody's got a beef to make with me, show me a prescription."

SI.com reported Rocker received two prescriptions for somatropin, a form of HGH, between April and July 2003.

"I was trying to pitch all the way up until a week before I had my surgery. And obviously feeling as bad as I was, I called every doctor I could (to find out) what can I do to strengthen my shoulder and give me more arm strength,' Rocker told ESPN Radio. "Every one of them said go to a GNC, buy something over the counter, human growth hormone, these very several amino acids ... basically (that) is the way it's done."

Here's the question. What could John Rocker possibly do that would surprise you at this point? Kill an elephant and try to sell the ivory to Tony LaRussa? Resume an effective career as a major league reliever? Just go away? Nah, we wouldn't want that.

John Rocker, Jose Canseco and David Bell were the latest three players named as alleged customers of performance-enhancing drugs in SI.com's on-going coverage of the federal investigation of a purported steroid and HGH distribution ring.

Canseco has famously admitted steroid abuse in the past, so no surprise there. Rocker allegedly received shipments for HGH back in 2003, a year after he last appeared in the majors. Needless to say, neither player seems especially relevant for our purposes, since both players allegedly received the drugs after they were out of the majors for good.

The name that should garner the most attention is that of David Bell, who's not on a roster this year but split last season between the Phillies and Brewers. From SI.com:

David Bell, a veteran of a dozen major league seasons, received six packages of HCG at a Philadelphia address last April, when he played for the Phillies. The cost was $128.80, and the drug was prescribed in conjunction with an Arizona antiaging facility. Bell acknowledges receiving the shipment but tells SI the drug was prescribed to him "for a medical condition," which he declined to disclose, citing his right to privacy.

Now here's what I don't understand: who's to say that Bell doesn't have a legitimate medical condition that requires HGH HCG (see below)? The natural inclination is to rush to judgment and assume that he took the drugs so that he could gain an advantage on the baseball diamond (an advantage, that is, over his otherwise decrepit skills, since he was never one of the most talented on the field...), but how do we know? Doesn't it seem odd that his medical records -- or at least, his prescription history -- are now part of the public domain without the benefit of a trial?

Maybe Gary Sheffield is right -- this definitely has a "witch hunt" aura surrounding it.

Update: As commenter No. 2 pointed out below, my initial headline and post said Bell received HGH, when the article actually said HCG. (I have no problem using that the fact I confused the two as an example of how generally ill-equipped the media is in having a conversation about performance-enhancing drugs. But I digress ...) According to Wikipedia, HCG is "human chorionic gonadotropin." It has several medical uses, but is also frequently used in conjunction with anabolic steroids to "restore / maintain testosterone production in the testes." Make of it what you will.