| | NEW YORK -- Before the game, John Rocker gave autographs to the New York Mets fans. Afterwards, he pumped his fist at the
crowd, then lingered on the field as a handful of fans shouted
profanities at their target.
"The only way to shut anybody up is to come in and close the
door," Rocker said Friday night after pitching a hitless ninth to
complete the Atlanta Braves' 1-0 victory over the New York Mets.
"You can't slip up and say the things I've said and then go out
and blow the game."
Rocker quieted most of the sellout crowd of 55,911, helping put
the Mets down 3-0 in the best-of-7 National League Championship
Series. For most of the night, he was their target.
"It's some of the most offensive things I ever heard. I
couldn't even repeat them on TV, and I'm tired of hearing it," he
said, "People will say a lot of stuff to you if there's a fence
between you and them."
When Rocker walked out of the Atlanta dugout during batting
practice, he was greeted by game-level booing. He walked down the
third-base line toward left field, took off his cap and waved to
the crowd a few times, then went to the front-row seats and started
signing.
"It was about what I expected," Rocker said, holding up a page
from a New York tabloid targeting his prior remarks. "It's a lot
of fun to know that I can get in these people's heads and can get
them to react the way I want them to. All that does is fire me
up."
Rocker became a target by saying Mets fans were "stupid." He spent most of the game in the bullpen, watching fans react.
"Quarters, bottles, batteries. I think somebody threw a bagel," he said.
"The vulgarity you have to hear, the sexually explicit remarks, the objects being thrown at you, that kind of stuff is going too far."
Braves third baseman Chipper Jones enraged Mets fans last month
when, after Atlanta dropped New York two games back with three to
go, he said: "This is the next-best thing to winning the World
Series."
Annoyed by taunts from the Shea Stadium fans, he responded in
kind: "I told them to go home and put their Yankees stuff on."
Mets fans greeted him Friday with slow chants of "Lar-ry, Lar-ry," which is his given name, but one he doesn't like.
"It wasn't that bad. You tune it out," Jones said. "I told
myself that I wasn't going to acknowledge any jeers or look at any
signs or do anything that didn't have to do with between the white
lines."
Many fans brought signs, among them:
"I Want To Fight John Rocker."
"Hey Rocker -- You Reek."
"Yo, Larry. Fuhget About It."
"Hey Chipper -- Heroes Don't Commit Adultery."
The latter referred to an affair Jones admitted just before he and his wife began divorce proceedings.
Rocker's latest remarks did not please Braves manager Bobby Cox,
and the pitcher said he apologized to his manager.
"Yeah, it irritates me," Cox said before the game. "I don't
like it. I don't condone it. He was roughed up by the fans, I
think, our first series here out in the outfield. And he's the type
of guy that's going to give it right back to them. He's got to work
on that. He's a great pitcher, a great competitor, but he needs to
work on his player-fan relationships."
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