A little over a year ago my wife came in to my office and told me to come watch this new relief pitcher the Braves had picked up. I hated him. He made me nervous – I almost had to leave the room. He fidgeted, and took his hat off and scratched, and wiped his face and twisted the ball, and then did it all again, at this manic pace. It seemed he must surely die from the stress of living at that intensity level.
Rocker grew on me. For one thing, he really is a baseball hero – he can heave that ball. Only Randy Johnson can match him for sheer intimidation factor. His raw jock vitality is stimulating. I began to see that he was bringing a critical ingredient to the Braves: excitement. This nut case acted like Rome rises or falls on his every pitch. He plays to win and it makes you want him to win. That's what baseball is about.
When the ninth inning roles around, it's time to hold an advantage, or start a rally. Three hitters up and three hitters down, which happens a lot with Rocker, can be critical. He strikes out well over one hitter per inning pitched. He looks like a guy you could sit next to in a pub and have a nice chat. Although, he might challenge you to arm wrestle! It is very obvious indeed why Atlanta fans like Rocker.
What is not as obvious is why everybody with a word processor and a liberal bent has been outdoing each other to damn Rocker and the Atlanta fans as a very sinister group indeed. It's astonishing. Atlanta is not heaven on earth, but we didn't need Rudy Giuliani's storm troops to be able to walk our streets. We are a friendly town. Yes we carry guns, many of us do that. But don't worry, unlike Northern guns ours do not jump up and start firing on their own. That apparently happens a lot in New York, where honest taxpayers are unarmed, and strangely enough, still get shot now and then. Compare our shootings in Atlanta to those in any other city, and you' ll find that one, there are not that many, and two: the loser in the gunfight is not always the crime victim. Heh heh.
One is amused by liberals who view Southern males as some dangerous, exotic breed of barely civilized and highly volatile Ku Klux Klan recruit with a baseball bat in one hand and gun in the other, looking for someone to lynch. They remind me of a bunch of sissies lifting up their figurative skirts lest they stumble and get their knickers wet.. But why on earth do we also cheer Andres Galarraga? He's not white for goodness sake. Of course he is Hispanic but as we found out recently, at least some Hispanics are politically correct so no points on that one. Andruw Jones? A fluke. Besides, we probably don't really like him – it's just a pose. Surely it's a put up job to elicit sympathy from the media who are far to clever to be taken in by such an obvious ploy. They've also been pathetically biased in their writing. Here in Georgia, we are aware that black players have lived at Rocker's house, with his Mom and Dad. For the propagandists of political correctness, this could interfere with their mission, which is to kiss the butts of their masters so that may attain sainthood – or even better, became anchor people.
One of the few things the Brits ever got right was that they don't canonize these silly and facile talking faces that are the icons of America's evening news; at least on the state controlled media. The Brits describe them accurately as "news readers." You can take Tom Brokaw to the Middle East, but when he gets there, he is going to read the news.
That sportscasters have jumped on this train could have amusing consequences. But not for their careers. They better get out of the posh clubs where they drink highballs with those self absorbed arbiters of taste in the news media, and get back to the sports bars where we think such people are ponces. You work in the real world, tough guy – you are not a hard hitting journalist – you are calling a baseball game, and you are required to know about the game and have a head full of statistics. When you start spouting that statist nonsense, that none but the very elite of the government / media conglomerate really pay any mind to, your credibility is gone at that instant.
The pathetic, feminized media, including, to my amazement, the sportscasters, fear white Southern men, and well they should. We are what stand between them and their socialist agenda. We are aware of it, and we reject it. Thus, we are ridiculed. What is appalling is their hypocrisy. They know full well that if being mugged is a worry, Kennesaw County is the place to be. Muggers in Kennesaw, who survive, are given an automatic insanity plea. It's like robbing a donut shop in Los Angeles. Yet they would never dream of living there because of their racism. In their hearts, they assume that blacks do all the crime, so to come down so hard that mugging is actually dangerous to the mugger, would be racist.
MSNBC referred to Atlanta baseball fans as racist rednecks because we routinely give John Rocker a standing ovation when he sprints out on to the field in that inimitable way of his. MSNBC saw hardly any blacks in stands, and presumed that they would have of course have better sense then to cheer Rocker, and intimated that they were probably in fear for the lives because of raging white Southern male hormones. Considering that the rest of us saw thousands of blacks in the stands, and do every time there is a game, I can only suggest that his power of observation is equal to his keen political and sociological insight. I'm saying he's blind.
Don Sutton asked himself, had Rocker considered that one of the umpires was a Cuban immigrant? He'd forgotten that Cuban immigrants were no longer an officially protected minority, joining western Europeans and Christians as targets of opportunity. Sutton was certainly sanctimonious but the fans noticed something he didn't. That the umpires pick up steam when Big John is out there – watch their movements, they start getting into it, too! Rocker brings some excitement to the game that is catching. And maybe the umpires are just a little tired of the thought police too.
Sutton seemed to sigh and exclaimed of this "inexplicable love affair" between Atlanta fans and John Rocker. u2018Even though virtually all of them had been insulted by him.' Yeah, Don, it's exasperating when people don't fall in line with the politically correct point of view and think for themselves. You see, most of us, and particularly Southerners (that includes black Southerners by the way, for folks in the North who are determined to split our population into manageable groups), are quite able to like somebody and not agree with them on every issue. Lots more agree with him. We've been to New York, and taken the subway.
It's interesting how the liberals assume that Hispanics are with them, just because a few paper men like Cisneros spout the party line in exchange for a hit from the trough. Having lived in Los Angeles, it seems to me that Hispanics are family people by nature and offer a lot of hope to this country in that regard. They seem rather conservative on a lot of matters the liberals live or die by, like homosexual activism, feminism, and abortion. They cheer, or least the ones on camera cheer, when Rocker comes on the field.
All this is shocking to our self-appointed masters, whose desire is for all of us to be just like them, in our diversity, of course. They are the racists, for they fear us. They are afraid of black people, of immigrants, of white southerners. They are afraid of our religion, our determination, our hard work. They are afraid, because after all the energy they have expended indoctrinating us, we still think for ourselves. We are the people who cheer John Rocker, and it is because we hate, but not in the way that MSNBC has accused us of hating. We hate what our country has become, we hate being lied to, and we hate the contemptuous manner in which these media buffoons treat us. We hate liars who tell us there are no black people in the stadium when our eyes tell us otherwise. We hate liars who tell us we are supposed to be concerned about Rocker's statements and fail to notice we are cheering him, and we hate being called racists by the welfare state crowd when it is patently obvious that they have a vested interest in racism – without it they are going to be standing in the unemployment line just behind the Grand Dragon of the Klan.
So we admit that we are mean, nasty ole haters, but as a rough neck buddy of mine used to say, "I must not be wrong, cause I ain't been busted in the mouth yet!" So live with it, sissies, and when Rocker strikes out your best hitters, you can throw batteries at him and pour beer on his wife, and comfort yourselves with the knowledge that you are morally superior.
But you better be polite when you are in reaching distance of him, and of me. You see, this politeness we practice in the South, which is so confusing to so many of you, is based on two things: good manners and good sense. We are polite to all but we don't tolerate insults. We are your worst nightmare. You can run your mouth down here but you talk about my momma and I'll drop kick you. This really upsets you folks I know, because you think that your blatherings are sacred, and constantly invoke that meaningless first amendment to support your supposed u2018right' to get in my face. Does it shock you that I mock the first amendment? How do you think it feels to patriotic Americans when you mock the second? Want to compromise? How about if I keep my guns and you keep your freedom of speech? Frankly, without me and my shooting irons, you and your jawbone are finished anyway.
So here is a suggestion – stick to soccer.
Mr. Peirce fought with the Rhodesian freedom fighters (the Ian Smith side, of course).
