Jeff Pearlman closes the door on John Rocker, and his guilt

[Songbird]

It's a good read. Guilt has wracked his soul despite 15 years of praise and a meteoric rise in professional stardom borne from the John Rocker story in '99. On the social media he said it was "cathartic" to write it.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2009128-a-reporters-tale-the-john-rocker-story-15-years-later

 

[Dick Whitman]

This is awesome:

My only strong moment came midway through, when he said, "I even bought you lunch!"

"Actually," I said, "I paid."

"Well, f--k you...''

 

[Songbird]

In the same vein I'd love for one of the big writers to do a retrospective about Rocker's first appearance at Shea after the suspension. The intensity was thick and made for great TV. He pitched a 1-2-3 inning and then his walk back to the dugout -- camera trained on him -- was so perfect. One of my favorite TV baseball moments.

 

[Starman]

Pushed the lede all the way to the bottom:

I have nothing to feel guilty about.

Except the Kangol hat. Perlman should feel guilty about that the rest of his days.

 

[Songbird]

Is that really a kangol though?

At least in the sense of LL Cool J's kangol.

Looks like Jeff is just wearing a cabbie hat, or the cap Terence Trent D'Arby wore, backward.

 

[Steak Snabler]

They make Kangol cabbie-style hats, too. Samuel L. Jackson has worn them for years:

 

[imjustagirl]

I had a Kangol cabbie style hat in college that I stole from an ex-boyfriend. That was 15-18 years ago.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

This is awesome:

My only strong moment came midway through, when he said, "I even bought you lunch!"

"Actually," I said, "I paid."

"Well, f--k you...''

That was probably my favorite line.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

That was a really interesting read.

There's no question that article ruined Rocker's career. Does that mean it's Pearlman's fault that he wrote it? Of course not... If the article hadn't happened, Rocker probably would have melted down at some other time, but that's a guess.

It was interesting. When that article came out, if you asked journalists if Pearlman did anything wrong, you would get a lot of different answers. Our baseball writers at the time got into a huge shouting match over whether the article was fair. My assigning editor at the time, by far the best editor I ever worked for, said under no circumstances would he have run that article, which stunned me. When I read the article at the time, I didn't think Pearlman had done anything wrong, but I was stunned at how many people who I respected disagreed with that.

Is there really another instance when there's an athlete who is so closely identified with a writer and what was written about him? I can't think of one.

 

[H.L. Mencken]

Pierce and Tiger comes to mind, but that's only within journalism circles.

DiMaggio and Talese, I suppose.

 

[Starman]

That was a really interesting read.

There's no question that article ruined Rocker's career. Does that mean it's Pearlman's fault that he wrote it? Of course not... If the article hadn't happened, Rocker probably would have melted down at some other time, but that's a guess.

It was interesting. When that article came out, if you asked journalists if Pearlman did anything wrong, you would get a lot of different answers. Our baseball writers at the time got into a huge shouting match over whether the article was fair. My assigning editor at the time, by far the best editor I ever worked for, said under no circumstances would he have run that article, which stunned me. When I read the article at the time, I didn't think Pearlman had done anything wrong, but I was stunned at how many people who I respected disagreed with that.

Is there really another instance when there's an athlete who is so closely identified with a writer and what was written about him? I can't think of one.

What the flyin' ****.

It ain't the job of an interviewer to save the subject from himself.

Once you have clearly identified yourself to the subject as a journalist, if they start spewing, it isn't your job to save them.

End of story.

 

[BDC99]

That was a really interesting read.

There's no question that article ruined Rocker's career. Does that mean it's Pearlman's fault that he wrote it? Of course not... If the article hadn't happened, Rocker probably would have melted down at some other time, but that's a guess.

Not a guess. He's STILL melting down regularly. See his tweets at the end of the recent Pearlman article. Guy would have imploded no matter what.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Pierce and Tiger comes to mind, but that's only within journalism circles.

DiMaggio and Talese, I suppose.

Yeah, I will always think of Tiger when I think of Pierce, but not the other way around... Maybe Feinstein and Bobby Knight...

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Brett Favre and Peter King.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Ty Cobb and Al Stump.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

That was a really interesting read.

There's no question that article ruined Rocker's career. Does that mean it's Pearlman's fault that he wrote it? Of course not... If the article hadn't happened, Rocker probably would have melted down at some other time, but that's a guess.

It was interesting. When that article came out, if you asked journalists if Pearlman did anything wrong, you would get a lot of different answers. Our baseball writers at the time got into a huge shouting match over whether the article was fair. My assigning editor at the time, by far the best editor I ever worked for, said under no circumstances would he have run that article, which stunned me. When I read the article at the time, I didn't think Pearlman had done anything wrong, but I was stunned at how many people who I respected disagreed with that.

Is there really another instance when there's an athlete who is so closely identified with a writer and what was written about him? I can't think of one.

What the flyin' ****.

It ain't the job of an interviewer to save the subject from himself.

Once you have clearly identified yourself to the subject as a journalist, if they start spewing, it isn't your job to save them.

End of story.

Definitely this.

I read this as not so much as a way to reconcile his guilt, but another way to shine the spotlight on himself again, like "Remember when I wrote this story that everyone paid so much attention to?"

And probably a little bit of a "**** You" to Rocker for the article that claimed Pearlman used slurs to help start Rocker on his rants.

 

[Songbird]

The next 2 anniversaries are shaping up:

* 20 years -- Jeff and John finally meet again for a live Q&A and while they don't hug it out they shake hands and yuk it up for the cameras, and the moment is the final chapter in Jeff's 10th book called "Rocker".

* 25 years -- #30for30

 

[93Devil]

Pierce and Tiger comes to mind, but that's only within journalism circles.

DiMaggio and Talese, I suppose.

Yeah, I will always think of Tiger when I think of Pierce, but not the other way around... Maybe Feinstein and Bobby Knight...

I think if you read Brink, it does not tell you anything you didn't know going in about his abusive behavior. What it does give you are many positive qualities of Knight you might not have known existed. I don't think he should apologize for that book at all.

 

[printit]

Pierce and Tiger comes to mind, but that's only within journalism circles.

DiMaggio and Talese, I suppose.

Yeah, I will always think of Tiger when I think of Pierce, but not the other way around... Maybe Feinstein and Bobby Knight...

I think if you read Brink, it does not tell you anything you didn't know going in about his abusive behavior. What it does give you are many positive qualities of Knight you might not have known existed. I don't think he should apologize for that book at all.

I always thought it was amazing that Knight hated A Season on the Brink so much. I went into it thinking Knight was a mean spirited bully. I left thinking that as well, but also left thinking that Knight had many positive qualities, few of which I knew about before reading the book.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I liked being reminded what a miserable ****ing asshole Will Clark is.

As a teenager, I remember Clark storming off at a Giants picture day when his hat blew off and at a card show when a kid who was no older than 10 tried to talk to him as he signed an autograph and Clark said, "They're not paying me to talk to you." He wasn't yelling, but he was enough of a **** about it that the kid started crying. The show organizer said afterwards that Clark was the rudest player he ever dealt with.