John Rocker

John Loy Rocker (born October 17 1974) is an American Major League Baseball relief pitcher, who played the better-known part of his career in 3 1/2 seasons with the Atlanta Braves, before being traded to the Cleveland Indians. He later played with the Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He is a native of Macon, Georgia and currently resides in Atlanta.

Early career

Rocker graduated from Presbyterian Day High School in Macon, Georgia, in 1993; he threw three no-hitters during high school. He was soon drafted by the Atlanta Braves. He started showing wild antics similar to those of Mark Fidrych from the beginning of his career. After a rocky minor league career - in his fourth season (1997), he was still at Double-A Greenville - he was converted into a reliever.

Related Topics:
1993 - No-hitter - Mark Fidrych - 1997 - Greenville

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This worked well for him. The next year, he was promoted to the major-league club and ended up becoming the closer after an injury to Kerry Ligtenberg. He finished the 1998 season with an earned run average of 2.13 in 38 innings pitched.

Related Topics:
Closer - Kerry Ligtenberg - 1998 - Earned run average

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

1999 proved to be Rocker's best year. After becoming the Braves' full-time closer, he converted 38 saves and had an ERA of 2.49 in 74 games. It was at this point that he was starting to be seen by many sportswriters as one of the next great closers in baseball.

Related Topics:
1999 - Saves

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~