Rocker made his major league debut in 1998 with the Braves, where he spent four seasons and was later a member of the Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Rocker received notoriety during his career for making controversial statements, which began with a 1999 Sports Illustrated interview and continued after his retirement.

Following the conclusion of his baseball career, Rocker competed on Survivor: San Juan del Sur with girlfriend Julie McGee, placing 16th.

[3] Rocker started to receive intense taunting from opposing teams' fans due to his negative behavior and his pitching performance began to decline.

The reporter, Jeff Pearlman, wrote that during the interview session, Rocker spat on a Georgia State Route 400 toll machine and mocked Asian women.

[14] Although Rocker later apologized after speaking with Braves legend and Hall of Famer Hank Aaron and former Atlanta mayor and congressman Andrew Young, he continued to make controversial remarks.

In 2002, while with the Rangers, Rocker again made national headlines for his views after directing slurs towards patrons of a Dallas restaurant at which he was dining, located in the predominantly gay neighborhood of Oak Lawn.

[19] In late 2006, Rocker was interviewed by the sports blog Deadspin, along with fitness model and then-girlfriend Alicia Marie.

Also during the interview, Rocker lambasted John Schuerholz, his former general manager with the Braves, calling him "a piece of shit".

[20] On Survivor, during an argument with fellow castmate Natalie Anderson, Rocker told her, "If you were a man, I'd knock your teeth out.

"[24] The comments made by Rocker about New York City would be lampooned by the MTV animated series Celebrity Deathmatch in their episode "Celebrity Deathmatch: North vs. South"; befitting the theme, his opponent was New York Yankees icon Derek Jeter, though he would not portray himself in the episode, being impersonated by a worker on the show, Sean Lynch.

In 2006, Rocker appeared on the Spike TV network's Pros vs. Joes, a program that pits retired professional athletes against amateurs.

In August 2014 it was announced that Rocker would appear on the 29th season of the competitive reality series Survivor alongside his girlfriend Julie McGee.

Though not directly based on Rocker, Danny McBride said that Kenny Powers, the main protagonist of the HBO series Eastbound and Down that the pitcher was "more or less an inspiration" for the character.