[MrWorkrate]

Originally Posted by Eckstein 4 Prez

Oddly enough, I actually have a lot of sympathy for John Rocker. In the New Historical Abstract, Bill James refers in passing to the "malevolent media lightning" that just ruins people's lives almost at random. Yeah, John Rocker was a xenophobe and an idiot when he said all of that stuff, but he was also a relatively uneducated 24-year-old who obviously wasn't too media-savvy. I've personally known dozens of people who've said things just as stupid or worse, but their lives haven't been ruined as a result. Now, maybe they would have been savvy enough to not say things like that to a reporter, but still - I've heard lots of people say things just like that before. Why do we hate Rocker - because he said those things, or because he said them in the open? Or just because sports needs villains just as it needs heroes?

Because Dusty Baker tried to do it and everyone laughed at him.