(Dallas)   Pitcher John Rocker is embroiled in a new anti-gay controversy.  The Texas Rangers' pitcher, nicknamed 'The Mouth From The South' yelled homophobic epithets after being heckled at a popular Dallas restaurant on the weekend.

Rocker and his girlfriend were at Breadwinners Cafe & Bakery in Dallas when the incident began.  One patron said the fans were "kidding him around the way you do with baseball players."

The patron, who did not want to be named, said that when several of the hecklers followed Rocker and his girlfriend out of the restaurant, the ball player turned around and began yelling something about them being "faggots."

Feletia Lee, the manager of Breadwinners said: "He's human but he should know better. There are a lot of people here who aren't going to go to any Rangers games again.

"I'm not going to go. I can't support them. That is just uncalled for."

Rocker's statement said: "It seemed as if they were trying to bait me with suggestive comments." 

He said that one of the fans made an obscene gesture and  "at that point, I admit I was angry and said some things I probably should not have said, but I wanted to make it clear their attentions were unwelcome."

The Rangers ball team doesn't want to get drawn into the issue.  Team spokesperson John Blake said:  "Our general advice to players is to leave a hostile public situation. And that's what he did. It is my opinion that this is a personal issue between John and the people in the restaurant."

Rocker, in an interview  just before the 2000 baseball season began lashed out at gays, people with AIDS  and minorities in a Sports Illustrated interview.

Throughout the season, the pitcher, then with the Atlanta Braves, was jeered by fans wherever the team played.

Rocker was ordered by the baseball commissioner to undergo sensitivity training and pay a fine.  The Braves eventually traded him in June 2001 to Cleveland.

Now a relief pitcher for the Rangers, Rocker has been on the disabled list since July 4 because of a left shoulder injury.

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