John Rocker Speaks Out

By now you've probably all heard about the latest comments made by John Rocker on several local radio stations here in Atlanta on Monday.

Steve Phillips went on ESPN on yesterday afternoon's edition of SportsCenter to immediately refute the importance or reliability of what Rocker said, which primarily included an accusation that Bud Selig ordered a steroids test on Rocker a few years ago and then covered up the results when they came back positive.

Also included in the conversations were implications that MLB and player's union doctors candidly spoke to players about how steroids could be safely taken.

I'm going to go out on a limb a little here: I actually think John Rocker is a pretty well-spoken guy. His famous comments about the New York subway, while definitely not PC, may have ruffled feathers more because they hit close to home than because they were inappropriate. Considering those comments were made in the privacy of his own car (albeit with a reporter present) makes me want to cut the guy a little slack.

After all, isn't one of the founding principles of this country the ability to speak our mind, or at least to hold an opinion, regardless of how much people may disagree?

Anyway, I just wanted to go on the record as saying that I wouldn't be surprised if what Rocker is saying has merit. Unfortunately, the spin machine that baseball has going right now will likely bury this story.

Again, ESPN is marginalizing the story right off the bat (much as they did with Jose Canseco at first), even though the fact that ESPN has a huge contract to televise tons of MLB games might seem to some to be a conflict of interests.

Let's hope some truth comes out of all of this, even if the truth ends up being that John Rocker is a nutcase. I wouldn't mind being wrong on this one.