GAY AND MINORITY GROUPS CALL FOR ROCKER'S FIRING

ATLANTA (AP) -- Nothing less than John Rocker's immediate firing will satisfy the gay and minority activists who stood outside Turner Field on Thursday to send a message to the Atlanta Braves. 
   
Trading or suspending him will not be enough punishment for the relief pitcher, whose incendiary comments about minorities and homosexuals have enraged millions, the activists said. They want him out of baseball for good. 
   
"There may be some room for redemption, but not as an Atlanta Brave," said Michael Langford, president of the United Youth-Adult Conference. "We encourage him to enter his resignation right now and go into an early retirement." 
   
The civic groups and a member of the Atlanta City Council delivered a letter Thursday to Braves owner Ted Turner and general manager John Schuerholz. It asked for Rocker's immediate firing and for a meeting with Braves officials. 
   
The letter also criticized Schuerholz for waiting until after the holidays to take any action against Rocker, 25. 
   
"We would have hoped there would have been a more scathing condemnation of these comments," said Atlanta City Councilman Derrick Boazman. "This was more than just rhetoric. This was hate." 
   
Boazman said he will introduce a resolution
condemning Rocker at a council meeting next
month. 
   
Jeff Graham, executive director of Atlanta's AIDS Survival Project, said Rocker deserves to be fired because his comments were not spontaneous. He had plenty of time to think about what he was saying during the 7-hour interview, Graham said. 
   
In the Sports Illustrated interview, Rocker told a reporter he would never play for a New York team because he didn't want to ride a train "next to some queer with AIDS." He also bashed immigrants, saying "I'm not a very big fan of foreigners ... How the hell did they get in this country?" 
   
While driving in Atlanta during the interview, Rocker spit on a toll machine and mocked Asian women:  "Look! Look at this idiot," he said. "I guarantee you she's a Japanese woman. How bad are Asian women at driving?" 
   
Rocker apologized in a written statement Wednesday, saying he was carried away by his "competitive zeal" against New York Mets fans. He said he is not a racist and the comments do not reflect his true feelings. 
   
But the apology was not enough to satisfy his critics -- or even other Braves players and officials.
   
Braves starting pitcher Tom Glavine says the one thing in Rocker's favor is that it's the offseason. If the team was playing, "there probably would have been 25 guys ready to kill him," Glavine said Thursday on WNNX-FM's morning show. 
   
And on a syndicated sports program, Braves legend Hank Aaron said he was "very sick and disgusted about the whole situation" and questioned how Rocker could continue in baseball. 
   
"I have no place in my heart for people who feel that way," Aaron told Chicago sports talk host Jay Mariotti on Thursday.  
   
Boazman said the protest groups, which included the Asian-American Economic Development Center, had no plans for a boycott of the Braves. He said they wanted to wait for the Braves' response to their letter. 
  
"There's a cancer within this organization that must be removed," Langford said.

Haven't seen Rocker's quotes?  Here are some of the lowlights:

(From an interview with SPORTS ILLUSTRATED)

On ever playing for a New York team: "I would retire first. It's the most hectic, nerve-racking city. Imagine having to take the [Number] 7 train to the ballpark, looking like you're [riding through] Beirut next to some kid with purple hair next to some queer with AIDS right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It's depressing." 

On New York City itself: "The biggest thing I don't like about New York are the foreigners. I'm not a very big fan of foreigners. You can walk an entire block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English. Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there. How the hell did they get in this country?" 

In passing, he calls an overweight black teammate "a fat monkey." Asked if he feels any bond with New York Knicks guard Latrell Sprewell, notorious for choking coach P.J. Carlesimo two years ago, Rocker lets out a snarl of disgust. "That guy should've been arrested, and instead he's playing basketball," he says. "Why do you think that is? Do you think if he was Keith Van Horn -- if he was white -- they'd let him back? No way." Rocker is rarely tongue-tied when it comes to bashing those of a race or sexual orientation different from his. "I'm not a racist or prejudiced person," he says with apparent conviction. "But certain people bother me." 

"So many dumb asses don't know how to drive in this town," he says, Billy Joel's New York State of Mind humming softly from the radio. "They turn from the wrong lane. They go 20 miles per hour. It makes me want -- Look! Look at this idiot! I guarantee you she's a Japanese woman." A beige Toyota is jerking from lane to lane. The woman at the wheel is white. "How bad are Asian women at driving?"

ROCKER ORDERED TO UNDERGO PSYCH. TESTING

ATLANTA (AP) -- John Rocker was ordered by baseball to undergo psychological tests before deciding whether to punish the outspoken reliever for remarks he made disparaging gays, minorities and immigrants.
   
Commissioner Bud Selig said Thursday he will await the evaluation of the Atlanta Braves star before deciding on any disciplinary action.

"Mr. Rocker's recent remarks made to a national magazine reporter were reprehensible and completely inexcusable," Selig said in a statement. "I am profoundly concerned about
the nature of those comments as well as by certain other aspects of his behavior."

Selig said he will take "whatever additional action that I consider to be necessary" after Rocker's evaluation.

Braves president Stan Kasten
said at a news conference that
he thought punishment was
warranted, but said the commissioner's office will
decide, not the team.

"It's important that John gets right with the organization, his teammates and the community," Kasten said. "But we at least need to give the man an opportunity to demonstrate his heartfelt remorse and correct the problem."

He said if the comments had been published during the season, Rocker likely would have been suspended indefinitely.

Kasten said the evaluation should begin within days. He said releasing Rocker remains an option but is unlikely.

Kasten said baseball officials and the players' association decided the evaluations were appropriate. The two organizations jointly will pick psychologists to evaluate Rocker.

Rocker's agent, Randy Hendricks, said neither he nor Rocker would comment.

In his comments to Sports Illustrated last month, Rocker said he would never play for a New York team because he didn't want to ride a train "next to some queer with AIDS." He also bashed immigrants, saying, "I'm not a very big fan of foreigners ... How the hell did they get in this country?"

While driving in Atlanta during the interview, Rocker spit on a toll machine and mocked Asian women: "Look! Look at this idiot," he said. "I guarantee you she's a Japanese woman. How bad are Asian women at driving?"

He also called a black teammate "a fat monkey."

Rocker later apologized and said he was not a racist, but several advocacy groups said the written apology and baseball's action thus far was not enough

"We have asked for his termination and still stand by that," Jeff Graham, executive director of Atlanta's AIDS Survival Project, said Thursday. "This certainly falls short of what we asked for and think is appropriate."

Atlanta City Councilman Derrick Boazman, who organized a news conference to speak out against Rocker and the Braves soon after the comments were made public, said baseball's move was "disappointing."

"What are they evaluating him for? He's a 37-save guy, and they know he is psychologically fit to play the game," Boazman said. "Even if he is diminished mentally, he still made those hate-filled comments."

Rocker, 25, saved 37 games for the Braves last year, taking over for injured closer Kerry Ligtenberg. He created a one-man rivalry with the city of New York during the NL Championship Series, calling Mets fans "stupid" and refusing to back down in the World Series, when the Braves were swept in four games by the Yankees.

Kasten and general manager John Schuerholz met with Rocker about a week after the statements became public.

"What we wanted to discern for ourselves was whether this was just a case of the mouth running ahead of the brain or was in fact representative of this player's feelings," Kasten said. "But John seemed truly remorseful and broken up about it and adamantly insisted he was not the person he had been portrayed as being."