Don’t Rock the Big Apple, It Rises to Most Occasions

The John Rocker incident began as a debate about bigotry and freedom of speech. Now, six months later, we may finally be glimpsing the real subject: deep anger. Why are some people consumed by it until it controls and warps them while others, in both sports and society, channel their anger and even turn it to good use?

Thursday night at Shea Stadium, a ballpark full of baseball fans found the perfect way to respond to Rocker’s public venom last December and make a point of their own in the process. For one night, New York controlled its justifiable animosity at Rocker, deflecting it into humor, insight and competitiveness. New York, the town of big emotions, was the master of itself, in contrast to Rocker, who has so often been a study in wild lack of self-control in both his comments and his pitching.

Instead of sinking to the level of Rocker’s comments in Sports Illustrated, fans simply mocked and booed the reliever every time he was visible. “This Is Rocker’s Brain” said one sign with an arrow pointing to a dot the size of a pea. Not one sign was unprintable or even remotely as mean as Rocker’s original words. “I Know A Redneck When I See One,” was the only racist response in kind.

In what almost seemed a tribute to the authenticity of New York fans and their passion for their games, the Brave who got ridden hardest, longest and most personally was ex-Met Bobby Bonilla. A fan held up a deck of cards to remind Bonilla of the incident in the ’99 postseason when he and Rickey Henderson--in a feud with Manager Bobby Valentine at the time-played cards in the clubhouse during a close, crucial game. “I don’t care about Rocker. You’re the bum, Bonilla. You cost us a Subway Series,” the fan bellowed, waving the cards. Many times.

Minutes before the game, the center field scoreboard flashed a huge picture of Rocker reading a prepared statement that, according to Braves President Stan Kasten, Rocker had written the previous night at 2 a.m. to show his remorse. In contrast to his previous slick public statement, this statement read like the unpolished work--with repeated or misused words and awkward phrases--that might be expected of a 25-year-old athlete trying to express his true feelings.

“The comments I made six months ago offended many people. I am fully aware of this and for that I sincerely apologize. . . . I am merely a baseball player and in the great scheme of things my thoughts, opinions and a attitudes are of little importance,” read Rocker as the crowd sat silent. They actually listened to him with either interest or respect, rather than simply shouting or booing him down.

“My comments weren’t made with intentions of malice. However, many people perceived these comments to be malicious and for this I again apologize. . . . I am not the evil person that has been portrayed. . . . The people in this city are extremely charismatic and full of personality, although a bit spirited at times, but that doesn’t make them bad people.”

Of course, the crowd booed. But not very loudly. A smattering of cheers of forgiveness, or sympathy, was audible, too. A blanket pardon? Hardly. Come on, you’ve got to boo this guy the first time back in town. Anything less is rank disloyalty. But for any city, much less one with New York’s roistering reputation, it was a civil response. Even before the game, the boos at Rocker as he ran wind sprints in the outfield were more perfunctory than raw. At one point, he even went to the box-seat railing to sign an autograph and returned unscathed.

Nobody in a Braves uniform got punched or pelted. In the best tradition of New York tolerance, the city went to expensive extremes to protect its critic, assigning 600 extra police to the game. Hours before the game, phalanxes of blue-clap cops, standing at parade rest in squadrons five deep and a dozen abreast, dotted the parking lots. It looked like the reception Clint Eastwood and Sandra Locke got in “The Gauntlet” when they drove a bullet-proofed bus up the steps of city hall. A protective “Rocker Roof” was built over the Braves bullpen and a plain clothes detective--in a Braves uniform--even sat in the Atlanta bullpen.

Some in baseball are inclined to see Rocker as an exhibitionist, a celebrity seeker, who’s always consciously used his anger as part of his intimidation routine as a power pitcher. Perhaps he tried to take that performance off the field, too.

“Isiah Thomas told me Rocker reminded him of Dennis Rodman. Rocker might have been trying to use his Mr. Anti-New York persona to make himself a celebrity in the offseason,” Kasten said Thursday night. “Rocker was really a media darling after he did well against both New York teams (in the postseason). Maybe he just got incredibly carried away (in trying to play the outrageous role).”

Whether that was the actual motive or not, the results are now definitely in. And they are sickening. Rocker is, indeed, a national celebrity, asked for autographs everywhere he goes and greeted by groups of fans in various cities who support him-for whatever reasons. “Everywhere he goes, he gets that reaction,” Kasten said. “Why? He’s a celebrity. We’re in a time where that’s all it takes. That’s what we’ve got.”

Anger is a bomb. Not a toy. And those who play with it as a means to an end are always in grave danger, even if they don’t know it. Anger is always near the root of violent crime. And it’s the fuel for every form of bigotry through the centuries. But it takes other, more devious forms.

We hear that raw anger posing as entertainment in radio shock jocks. We see it posing as sports, of a sort, when pro wrestlers shriek their fake threats and play to every ethnic and class stereotype. We hear it in politics where single-issue zealots demonize their foes and distort facts to suit their views.

We have heard it in Rocker’s comments last December and in his crude, threatening explosion three weeks ago at the Sports Illustrated reporter who wrote the original story.

Luckily, we did not hear it in Shea Stadium. Instead, we saw the best of New York, a city too big and sure of itself to get mad at small words. No rebuttal to Rocker’s original comments could have been more eloquent than this city’s tolerance of the intolerant Brave.

Despite all the fear and fuss, he returned to boos and laughter. But nothing more.