|
|
(Enter the username and password above that you entered while signing up for email or the discussion board)
|
|
|
Tuesday, June 12
Man files claim against Rocker in bar dispute
ESPN.com news services
ESPN.COM
A 25-year-old computer consultant filed a complaint of verbal harrassment against John Rocker after the Atlanta Braves pitcher allegedly chased the man around a New Jersey bar last weekend.
| |  | |
| Rocker |
No charges have been filed against Rocker and, according to police, charges are unlikely to be filed.
While Rocker has made no comment on the incident, the man involved, Ali Tsaoys, says he was scared for his safety.
Tsaoys told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he and the Braves' stopper crossed paths at Martell's Tiki Bar in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., 60 miles south of New York City, around midnight Saturday. The Braves had beaten the Yankees 10-6 earlier that afternoon.
"I see this guy, another guy and a girl, and I say, 'Wow, that's John Rocker,' " Tsaoys told the Journal-Constitution. "I say, 'Man, what's going on?' And I extend a hand out for a shake. We shake hands. He walks by and I yell out, 'Let's go Yankees.' ... He turns around and he makes this lewd gesture ... I turn around and in the corner of my eye, I see him coming after me. His buddy is holding him back. He's calling me every name in the book. I'm running around tables, weaving in and out of people, trying to get away from him."
ESPN.com received e-mail Sunday from a man who said he was at the bar, however, and he had a much different take on how the incident started.
The e-mail said Tsaoys had everyone in the bar chanting "Rocker sucks," so "Rocker lost his cool in front of his
girlfriend and started chasing this guy around a bar table in circles.
Just before Rocker got his hands on the guy, security broke it up and
that was the end of it."
But Tsaoys told the Journal-Constitution that about 20 minutes after Rocker was restrained by his friend and
eventually moved to a secluded area of the bar, that he approached Rocker to ask for an apology but was cursed out by the pitcher and then removed by security.
Rocker has been a target for New York fans after he made offensive comments about the city and citizens in a magazine article following the 1999 season. Major League Baseball suspended him to start the 2000 campaign, and the hard-throwing left-hander has been made the butt of jokes ever since.
|
|
|
