Had John Rocker either pitched well or behaved well these last two
months, he would still be with the Atlanta Braves right now. But you don't need to
consult either the Elias Sports Bureau or Miss Manners to know he went 0-for-2 on both counts.
So now, if Rocker is ever going to pitch for the Braves again -- if he's ever
going to pitch anywhere in the big leagues again, for that matter -- his life
is no longer a multiple-choice question.
|
“ |
Most
of us recognize that there are moments in life to
take a step backward and call off the cavalry. Had
John Rocker done that at any time these last few
months, he'd have been far better off today. ” |
"We're now beyond 'either-or' in this situation," says one Braves source.
"For him to come back here, he's got to do both -- pitch well and behave well."
Before they dispatched Rocker to his minor-league Siberia in Richmond on
Monday, the Braves made that clear. It may have been the way Rocker pitched
that pushed them into the decision to send him down. But he is going to have
to do more than throw strikes if he wants to make this a round-trip ticket.
"It's really up to him how he handles this and goes forward," the Braves
source says. "We need a quality closer. But we also need him to be the type
of professional who can be accepted by the rest of this ballclub."
When a player reaches the stage where one of his teammates is publicly
describing him as a "cancer," it tells you he has worn out more than just
his welcome. He has worn out the brain cells of everyone in the organization
who even made a pretense of trying to defend him.
Brian Jordan may not speak for everyone in that Braves clubhouse. But
when you've lost Tom Glavine, when you've lost Eddie Perez, when you've lost
Chipper Jones, you've lost the men who can at least help you survive on a team where lack of professionalism has never been tolerated for long. And
John Rocker lost them all.
"One expression of true humble emotion would have gone a long way," says
one Brave. "But we haven't seen it yet."
The fact is, though, that the Braves didn't want to see the John Rocker
Story end this way. If they had, they would have exported him a long time
ago. They've spent six months trying to make this mess
work -- against ridiculous odds, against all public sentiment, against the
sentiment in their own clubhouse.
Think of all the hours they spent these last six months, answering the
questions, smoothing tensions and trying, in the words of one Braves
official, "to save a guy who didn't want to be saved."
So when they sent Rocker to Richmond on Monday, this wasn't a case of a team
looking for an escape route on the road to Shea Stadium. This was a case of a
team looking for an escape hatch, period -- from six months of almost nonstop
hell.
But now what? That's a question no one can answer right now.
Would the Braves love to trade him? You bet. But interest is close to
nonexistent. And he has now burrowed his value to an all-time low. So the Braves
aren't searching the continent for someplace to trade him. For now, they're
just waiting to see whether Rocker will even show up in Richmond.
Remember this: He has until Thursday night to do that, and he can't just
refuse to report -- as if he could if he's 10 years in the big leagues. He doesn't
have the right yet to refuse to report anywhere.
He has two years and a handful of days of big-league service time. So he
either reports to Richmond, or he starts looking for other lines of work.
So logic would tell you that he'll report. But if logic were ruling John
Rocker's head, he wouldn't be in this mess.
It shouldn't surprise anyone, then, that Rocker is said to be still agonizing
over whether to go to Richmond. He knows that if he doesn't, he'll be
suspended without pay. He knows that if he doesn't, he loses all chance
either to change the Braves' mind or to get another club interested in his services.
And still, he isn't sure whether he's going to report, even if it means
living with every one of those consequences. If you can't understand why,
then you haven't paid enough attention to Rocker's behavior throughout this
entire ordeal.
When Chipper Jones said the other day, "I haven't seen John back down
yet," he summed up Rocker's philosophy of life better than anyone. So even
now, in a situation that would shake anyone's psyche, in the face of a move
that was intended by his team as the loudest wake-up call of his career, why
should it shock anybody that Rocker has given serious thought to a
career-threatening act of defiance?
He hasn't backed down yet. That describes his personality. But it also
describes the reason he is even facing this crisis. Most of us recognize that there are moments in life to take a step backward and
call off the cavalry. Had John Rocker done that at any time these
last few months, he'd have been far better off today.
So now, as he sits home contemplating where he is going to take the rest
of his career, if not the rest of his life. He has one final chance to figure
it all out. He can fight the demons he sees flying at him from every angle.
Or he can fight the demons within.
It's his turn now to pick his fight. The Atlanta Braves will be watching.
So will we all.
Jayson Stark is a senior writer at ESPN.com. | |
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Rocker might quit rather than report to Triple-A
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Chipper Jones hopes this will be the kick-in-the-pants John Rocker needs.
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Bobby Cox is not sure if John Rocker will report to Richmond.
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