Democrats Take Shot At Rocker

January 18, 2000 / 1:05 PM EST / CBS/AP

Plenty of people have been taking swings at John Rocker. Al Gore and Bill Bradley didn't shy away from the batter's box when they had their chance.

The Democratic presidential candidates criticized Rocker's disparaging remarks about foreigners, minorities and gays during Monday night's Democratic debate in Des Moines, Iowa.

"I don't know John Rocker and I don't want to know John Rocker," said Bradley, a former NBA star. "But I do know one thing: This would not have happened had an organization and a team (been) attuned to the kind of things that he said."

"When I was on the Knicks, one of my jobs was when there was a white player that came on the team who didn't quite understand used the wrong words I took him over to the side and said, `Look, that doesn't work on this team. If you want to be on this team, you respect everybody,"' he said. "If that had happened on the Atlanta Braves, you wouldn't have had John Rocker."

Said Gore: "I, first of all, think what he said was reprehensible and disgusting. And I condemn it without any reservation, of course."

Last week, Texas Gov. George W. Bush said he agreed with baseball commissioner Bud Selig's decision to have the Braves relief pitcher undergo psychological testing.

In a Republican debate, Bush, a former managing general partner of the Texas Rangers, said: "The fellow said some incredibly offensive things. He is a public person. And I appreciate them trying to get the man help."

In an interview in Sports Illustrated last month, Rocker said he would never play for a New York team because he didn't want to ride a train "next to some queer with AIDS." He also bashed immigrants, saying "I'm not a very big fan of foreigners. How the hell did they get in this country?"

Rocker later apologized and in a subsequent interview with ESPN said his comments were in retaliation for verbal and physical abuse he said he received from New York Mets fans during the NL Championship Series.

That was not enough to prevent the heavy metal band Twisted Sister to ask the Braves to stop using their song "I Wanna Rock" to introduce Rocker when the reliever enters games.

"We've got Hispanics in this band, Italians in this band, people who are Polish and Russian," said guitarist Jay Jay French, the heavy metal band's co-founder. "We're all immigrants, all foreigners quote unquote and this is our way of saying his comments were not acceptable."

New York-based TwisteSister is best known for its 1984 hit single "We're Not Gonna Take It." The song's video featured lead singer Dee Snider and other band members wearing garish makeup and wild hairstyles.

French, 42, said he still legally represents the band and that all its members were in agreement over the action.

He said he told both his record label, Atlantic Records, the band didn't want the song used in conjunction with Rocker and said he faxed a letter to the Braves' director of public relations Jim Schultz and left several messages for him.

French would not speculate on what he would do if the Braves continued to use the song, written by Snider.

Schultz did not return phone calls seeking comment.

"These comments were way too damaging to be considered flip comments," French said. "One must take responsibility for the ramifications when you say something like that, and this is just our way of voicing our displeasure the one thing we could do. This is just another voice in crowd that lets him know that what he did was not acceptable."