The world has changed in fifteen years. Except where it hasn't

April 4, 2014 4:28 PM

It has been nearly fifteen years since a young sportswriter named Jeff Pearlman was given an assignment by Dick Friedman, the baseball editor at Sports Illustrated: write a piece about a soon-to-be 25-year-old Braves closer with a sinking 95 mph fastball and a wicked slider. The man's name was John Rocker. A sportswriter reflects upon the story that may have defined his career, if not the career of the man he covered.
posted by 4ster (7 comments total)

"I reached out to Rocker for this piece, but he did not respond."

I think I love Jeff Pearlman.
posted by The Confessor at 5:20 PM on April 4, 2014

To clarify, I love that Jeff mentions an attempt to contact the article's subject immediately after painting his previous attempts to do so as pathological.
posted by The Confessor at 5:22 PM on April 4, 2014 [3 favorites]

Good read. Thanks for posting.
posted by wrapper at 5:34 PM on April 4, 2014

Reminds me of Charles Pierce's piece on Tiger Woods. Interesting how Woods and/or his handlers were able to minimize the fallout from that story. Mostly.

Rocker manages to make himself pretty unsympathetic, but he did inspire Kenny Powers. So he's got that going for him.
posted by TedW at 7:19 PM on April 4, 2014

I hope that this piece allows Pearlman to let go and move on, though.
posted by emjaybee at 7:28 PM on April 4, 2014

I was interested to learn from Wikipedia that he writes for Worldnet Daily. Pearlman doesn't need to feel one iota of guilt about writing that article. It was an accurate depiction of Rocker.
posted by TedW at 7:46 PM on April 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

From Rocker's Wikipedia page: "John Rocker is currently director of public affairs for Save Homeless Veterans."

Because he's so good at public affairs?
posted by ctmf at 12:38 AM on April 5, 2014 [1 favorite]