NYBD: Silva: John Rocker on New Book, the Mets, Bud Selig, Steroids, and Politics

Rocker? Erudite? Ain’t that someone who hates Euro’s?

It’s been over a decade since his infamous Sports Illustrated interview with Jeff Pearlman that published on December 27th, 1999. If Mets fans are expecting the same brash and cocky individual they remember from the 1999 NLCS, think again. Rocker was extremely open, honest, and erudite during a 35-minute interview on the program. Here are some highlights.

...- He had some interesting things to say about Selig and the aftermath of the SI article. “When the SI story came out, the commissioner’s office and Selig were extremely upset with me,” Rocker said. “They asked me on four different occasions during the two week period to take a steroid test. The first three times I refused. The fourth time my agent literally pleaded with me saying please, the commissioner’s office is extremely upset with you; you need to take this test. You take the test, possibly pacify them, they go a little bit easier on you when they render their reprimand.”

- He finally took the steroid test and admitted to failing it, but the league denies knowing the results. “I finally succumb; ok I’ll take the test. Of course, I failed it miserably. And you mean to tell me the commissioner’s office who insisted over two weeks over four different occasions that I take a steroid test, they don’t know the result of said test?”

- I was surprised by his admission to taking steroids, so I asked him again if he was taking some sort of PED in 1999. “Yeah, of course I was. I mean who wasn’t? Let’s be honest here, who wasn’t?”