This Decision Leaves a Lot to Be Desired

It was such a nice idea. It was going to be such fun.

John Rocker’s first day of eligibility was going to be May 1 at Dodger Stadium, and we were going to be ready.

The man of many hates meets the crowd of many colors.

The Atlanta Brave relief pitcher who openly despises those not resembling him takes the mound surrounded by 40,000 of us.

We normally don’t say much, but we have our limits, and John Rocker sped past them like a pinhead in a pickup, so he would hear about it.

We would boo. We would heckle. He would hide. We would find him.

Amid all the national attention for a man who would probably be a hero by then--Who Wants to Marry a Multiracist?--diversity and tolerance would desperately need a voice.

For one glorious night, that voice would be ours.

It was such an appropriate ending.

As if anything involving John Rocker could ever be appropriate, or actually end.

Thanks to a grounder through the legs of arbitrator Shyam Das Wednesday, we will not get the first shot at Deliverance John.

He will, instead, return to action April 18 in Atlanta.

Thanks to the first error of the 2000 season, we will not have the pleasure of knowing that baseball is finally taking control of itself.

Rocker begins spring training today.

Commissioner Bud Selig acted thoughtfully and decisively last month when he suspended Rocker for all of spring training and the first 28 days of the regular season for public comments disparaging foreigners, gays and minorities.

He was initially ripped by those who misunderstand the Constitution.

Then Wednesday, in a far more dangerous reaction, his decision was overturned by an arbitrator who misunderstands baseball.

The spring training suspension was ended immediately. The regular-season suspension was cut in half.

The employee won.

The employer lost.

Who’s in charge now?

That is what this is about, you know.

Climb out from underneath that convenient American flag for a second and take a look.

This is not an issue of free speech, no more than if I stood up in the middle of the newsroom and made racist remarks about my L.A. Times colleagues, then claimed it was free speech.

This is not about protecting the integrity of the First Amendment. It’s about protecting the integrity of first base.

John Rocker was not suspended for participating in a protest march or picket line. He was not dragged off a street corner or pulpit.

In a national magazine interview, acting as a representative of the private industry that is major league baseball, he made comments that were clearly detrimental to baseball.

His bosses punished him for those comments.

Simple. Sensible.

Certainly, although his statements were clearly ignorant and insulting to darn near everyone human, he had a right to say them.

But not as a baseball player, not if baseball doesn’t approve.

Some might say, wait a minute, Rocker made his comments long after the season, far from the clubhouse, on his personal time, so it shouldn’t matter what baseball thinks.

But baseball, like many visible industries, is different. It is an enterprise whose success is based on public trust. There is no off-season. There is no personal time.

A major auto executive would not get away with insensitive remarks while being interviewed by a national auto magazine during his vacation. So why should a relief pitcher?

The executive would not get punished because he was a threat to society. He would be punished because he was bad for business.

It’s the same thing here. For all the public wrong that Rocker’s comments wrought, they were also bad for business.

I’m guessing that somewhere in the Constitution lies baseball’s right to run that business.

An arbitrator has as much business reducing Rocker’s suspension as he does telling the Braves when to warm him up.

So what happens now?

What do you think?

Rocker shows up, apologizes to his teammates, apologizes to the world and gets back to work as if nothing happened.

It was written here that the Braves should not trade him so he can be continually reminded that, in fact, something has happened, something big, something that needs fixing.

But the Braves might not have a choice. Some Atlanta community leaders have demanded Rocker leave town. This reduction in his punishment will only increase the volume.

As with any business, the Braves need to be sensitive to their customers.

Just as baseball was trying to do.

So send the lug to Montreal.

And hope an arbitrator doesn’t decide to bring him back.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.