Braves Near a Knockout

The Atlanta Braves knew what they were in for Friday night at Shea Stadium.

They knew it even if Chipper Jones hadn’t infuriated the New York Met supporters when the Braves were here during the last week of the regular season by suggesting their team was dead and they should go home and put on their Yankee T-shirts.

They knew it even if John Rocker hadn’t continued to demean Met fans, referring to them on the eve of Game 3 of the National League’s championship series as “stupid” and a “tired act.”

“You don’t have to say anything and you know you’re going to come in here and be hated,” said John Smoltz, confirming what the Braves already knew about the depth of the fans’ . . . well, fanaticism. “It’s just a different place. If they could, they’d do whatever they could to help their team win, even if it was running on the field and fielding a ground ball.

“As a visiting player, you just hope to do the best you can to not be embarrassed, because they’ll embarrass you, whether it be verbally or with the pressure of the game on the line.”

The Braves didn’t take a crowd of 55,911 out of the game Friday night, but they probably took the Mets out of the postseason with a 1-0 victory behind the resolute pitching of Tom Glavine, Mike Remlinger and a repentant--well, sort of--Rocker, who apologized to Manager Bobby Cox for his remarks, although not for exercising his free speech.

“I apologized for shooting my mouth off, even though I feel I was right,” the hyper left-hander said long after compounding the irritation of Met fans by saving the Braves’ 12th win in 15 games with New York this year--and leaving New York one loss from four-and-out elimination in the best-of-seven series.

Rocker said he apologized if his remarks contributed to a situation in which “we needed an armed force in our bullpen” to help insure the safety of Rocker and his colleagues and “allow us to play a baseball game.”

Kevin Hallinan, who supervises security for major league baseball, said security precautions Friday night were of “Olympian proportions,” with an extra 500 members of the New York Police Department on hand.

Rocker still had to dodge an assortment of batteries, water bottles and loose change thrown in his direction after he closed out his seventh save in 10 appearances against the Mets this year and for the 10th time did not give up an earned run. Did any of the objects hit him? “No,” he said, “they were too drunk to hit me.”

Not, however, to hit Rocker and Jones, in particular, with insults, vulgarities and derisive signs and chants, including that of “Lar-ry, Lar-ry,” which is Chipper’s given name.

“Everybody knew what the atmosphere would be like,” Jones said. “We had two days to prepare. I wasn’t going to look at any signs or acknowledge any jeers. I was only going to concentrate on my job. I have to thank [Rocker], however, for taking a little of the pressure off me. If you’re going to talk the talk, you better walk the walk, and he’s been doing it. He’s a phenomenal talent, and I’m certainly glad he nailed this one down or they might have torn the place down.”

He referred to the fans, who were silenced by this latest Rocker display of putting up after failing to shut up. He retired Todd Pratt, Melvin Mora and Rey Ordonez after Benny Agbayani opened the ninth by reaching first on an error by shortstop Walt Weiss.

Rocker, who had doffed his cap to the hooting fans during pregame introductions, reached a new height of animation after the third out, pumping his fist and jubilantly raising both arms.

“It was a release of pressure I’ve been feeling a little lately,” he said. “I can’t mess up saying the things I said and then blow the game. It was the only way to shut everybody up.

“I mean, I was really motivated and fired up. It’s not that I have a general dislike for all Met fans. I admire the way they support their team, but there’s no excuse for the kind of vulgarity and sexually explicit remarks you hear from some of them about your mother, your wife and members of your family. That kind of thing has no place.”

Maybe not, but Cox, who oversees a professional clubhouse and team, acknowledged before the game that he isn’t pleased when Rocker or any of his other Braves make statements demeaning an opposing team or its fans.

Met Manager Bobby Valentine jumped on the remarks by Rocker and Jones going into this series to say the Braves have shown his team no respect, an obvious attempt to fuel the Mets’ motivation.

“It irritates me. I don’t like it and I don’t condone it,” Cox said specifically about Rocker’s most recent fan-related insults. “He was roughed up by the fans, I think, in our first series here, and he’s the type of guy that’s going to give it right back. He’s got to work on that. He’s become a great pitcher, a great competitor, but he needs to work on his player-fan relationship. I mean, I tell all our players to watch what they say. It’s a game of baseball, not a game of words.”

The Mets, of course, have to be wondering what they have to do to beat the Braves in a game of baseball, losing this one on an unearned run while giving up only three hits.

The unsung Remlinger, who pitched a flawless eighth and was 10-1 in relief for the Braves this season, described the atmosphere as electric and exciting, the kind of situation “where you take it on yourself to try and take the crowd out of the game.” No one was more motivated to do that than Rocker, who when asked if it was fun, said, “well, it wasn’t a vacation type fun, but it was fun knowing I can get in the fans’ head and push their buttons so easily.”

From now on, however, his manager would advise him to keep his finger off the button.