Outspoken former Major League relief pitcher John Rocker struck again Wednesday.
The former Atlanta Braves closer whose comments in a 1999 Sports Illustrated interview were widely criticized, took another unpopular stance in an interview with the CBS Radio affiliate in Cleveland on the subject of performance enhancing drugs, USA Today reported.
Rocker, who played from 1998 to 2003, said he thinks baseball is better with players using steroids.
According to the Cleveland.cbslocal.com website, Rocker told the radio station, "Honestly, and this may go against what some people think from an ethical stand point, I think it was the better game. At the end of the day when people are paying their $80, $120 whatever it may be, to buy their ticket and come watch that game, it's almost like the circus is in town. They are paid to be entertained. They wanna see some clown throw a fastball 101 mph and some other guy hit it 500 feet. That's entertainment. You're paying to be entertained."
Rocker referenced the drama surrounding the 1998 pursuit of the single-season home run record by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa as an example of the entertainment value that chemically enhanced athletes bring to the sport.
"That was a mesmerizing time for every baseball fan out there...the people were getting their money's worth."
Rocker added that he believes that detection of and testing for PEDs always will be lagging behind the innovations in steroid use to avoid detection.
So why not just let the players "juice up?"
"The best tests out there, the ones the Olympics use, can only test for 500 molecular combinations of 50,000 possible combinations. ... They're going to cost ya', but the guys who want them can certainly pay for a chemist to build them," he said during the interview.
Rocker reportedly is heavily involved in community service these days, serving as director of public affairs for SaveHomelessVeterans.com, the Ronald McDonald house and helping raise money to battle multiple sclerosis, Cleveland.cbslocal.com reported.
hat is a far cry from his playing days, when he told Sports Illustrated, "The biggest thing I don't like about New York are the foreigners. I'm not a very big fan of foreigners."
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