Damn, dude, it’s one thing to be a bigot, but at least some people can keep their fucking traps shut. But noooo … it wasn’t enough when you blew everything open a few years ago for SI, detailing exactly why you wouldn’t want to live/play for a New York ballclub.
Do yourself a favor and just … don’t speak.
[sub]Link in the above “smiley”[/sub]
:mad:
Mmmm, Breadwinners. Excellent lunch spot.
And oh yeah, fuck John Rocker.
taken out of context, I tells ya! The conversation went something like this:
See? John is the model of tolerance. The term was taken out of context for sensationalist reporting!
Well, they did get one thing wrong: He ain’t no superstar.
Here’s the thing: If people were giving him a hard time - whether he deserved it or not - and he simply got up and left, there’d be no issue at all. That would have been the right thing (or, of course, just sit there and take it, but his own GM says the players are supposed to leave hostile public situations), but instead he had to call them all a slur.
Not even with Mark Wohlers’ dick.
What makes me said is, last I heard, he was still dating Don Sutton’s daughter.
Well, from the story on espn.com this morning it seems that people may have been trying to get a rise out of him.
Though that’s not confirmed it wouldn’t surprised me. Rocker’s got to be this enormous target and he probably will be for the rest of his life.
Feh. He did it to himself.
Not to defend JR, but doesn’t he have the same right to sit in a public place and eat in peace as anyone/everyone else? Weren’t the people sending jibes his way as guilty or even moreso than JR? Yet, we don’t get headlines stating, “Two people in dining establishment harass pitcher until he snaps” or other such. The truth is, since JR made a complete ass of himself a few years back, his ice is thinner than anyone elses.
Of course this should make him more aware and he should “learn to keep his trap shut”. Not because he is “at risk,” but because he should know that saying anything the least bit intolerant would get him in the headlines faster than greased lightening.
I didn’t say he didn’t have that right. As a public figure, he’s always going to find it tough to sit anywhere in public, even if he never said anything inflammatory. Unfortunately, when you become a “star athlete” you certainly lose some of your anonymity.
He had every right to sit in public, and when/if the fans started in on him, he had a right to say something back, IMO. It might not have been wise, but sure, he could have done so. But he didn’t just say something back, he chose a slur. Whether the fans instigated it is at least a little beside the point. This is someone who’s had a history of public bigotry; he chose that attitude, and now he’ll have to deal with the consequences for maybe a lifetime.
The fact that he doesn’t seem to have learned from the “subway” incident should count as a strike against him.
Wah! A baseball player called me a name! He’s a meanie! I’m telling the newspaper!
Old news: John Rocker doesn’t like people different from him. Who cares?
I’d like to know what exactly was said to him to begin with. I’m willing to bet that there’s two sides to this story, and that both of them are wrong.
I am as much a non-supporter of Rocker as anybody, but I just don’t see the big deal here. He was being harassed while eating dinner and called the harrassing gay couple “fruitcakes” as he leaves. Wow, what a nasty insult.
Then, the couple follows him outside and starts up an argument. Presumably, further epithets are thrown during the argument. Please, once they followed him out there to start something, you have to expect him to respond unkindly. Of course, there is no apology from the couple for any unkind words they may have said.
Of course, there is no apology from the couple for any unkind words they may have said.
And why is that? I wonder did the manager come down on these guys for chasing a paying customer from her store? You can bet JR is not going back to her store because the patrons appear to be hostile. She loses. And why is it OK for gays to bait a bigot but not the other way around? You could look at this as a hate crime. Some gays hate the bigot so they bait him into a confrontation. John should make this a civil rights case. He has the right to be a bigot. Silly I know but just a thought.