MACON, Ga. – Walk into the Middlebrooks Athletic Center at First Presbyterian Day School and you immediately know where John Loy Rocker resides in the hearts and minds of those here in his hometown.

On the brick wall to your right is his retired jersey, proudly displayed with the school nickname, “Vikings,” across its chest.

Here they don’t see Rocker as the poster child for racist, insensitive comments. Yes, they see someone who made those terrible statements – they are not about to bury their heads in the sand – but they also see someone who made a mistake, someone who apologized for that mistake, someone who remains the pride of his school.

“John Rocker just signed with the Long Island Ducks, sir,” 12-year-old Cameron Carter, a second baseman on the middle-school baseball team at First Presbyterian, proudly tells me. “I got his autograph once down at the football field.”

“I met him over at Barnes & Noble,” says David Darnell, 13, a shortstop. “He was nice.”

Says 13-year-old catcher Clayton Pope, “I’d love to catch ’em, sir.”

Like everyone I met at the school and in the area, these youngsters were extremely polite and respectful. They also were forgiving of Rocker.

Perhaps that’s the ultimate irony of this story: Not that Big Apple basher Rocker signed with a New York Independent League club – that’s ironic enough – but that New Yorkers think Rocker’s 1999 words may speak for this community of nearly 100,000 people 80 miles south of Atlanta.

Here they see a much different John Rocker than the Punk Rocker New York sees, the one who said in that Sports Illustrated article: “Imagine having to take the 7 train to the ballpark, looking like you’re [riding through] Beirut next to some kid with purple hair next to some queer with AIDS right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It’s depressing.”

Rocker’s former high school coach, Jim Turner Jr., has known Rocker since he entered First Presbyterian as a kindergarten student.

“John always was a talker,” Turner says. “But he’s really a good guy, a funny guy. He was sorry for what he said, he knows he made a mistake.”

Turner is deeply respected here and remains close to Rocker; they went fishing the other day.

“John caught eight bass to my four,” says Turner, who believes young Rocker was somewhat overwhelmed by things he couldn’t relate to when he made those hurtful comments.

“There’s nobody in Macon with purple hair,” Turner says.

The only thing purple here is the wisteria, and that’s in full bloom now.

Turner, 53, is a former shortstop at the University of Georgia and coached varsity baseball at First Presbyterian for 20 years. He briefly went to coach at a local public school but is back at First Presbyterian, teaching physical education and coaching softball.

He sees a John Rocker who always was willing to help his community, who would give clinics to youngsters to raise money for school programs; a John Rocker, who when he played here in the minors at Luther Williams Stadium in 1996, had teammates Andruw Jones and Bruce Chen live with him at his parent’s house.

He also saw a John Rocker who would pick up the tab for students and chaperones when they would visit in spring training, a John Rocker who would pay the way for students so they could go to World Series games in New York.

He sees a John Rocker who was the heart and soul of the 1992 state championship team, a super competitive athlete who set the school’s reception record as a wide receiver, an unbeatable pitcher and a terrific center fielder who loved the game and would get upset when opponents wouldn’t pitch to him.

” ‘ Coach, they won’t give me a fastball,’ ” Turner recalls Rocker saying.

Turner sees a John Rocker who is sorry for what he said and has paid a price.

“It’s hard for him to trust people now after that Sports Illustrated article,” the coach says.

Turner remembers a 12-year-old John Rocker over at the George T. Jones Little League Complex at Freedom Park, pitching for the Dodgers, beating his father’s team, the Orioles, on the most perfect of fields that even has its own Green Monster.

Jim Turner Sr. coached Little League for 34 years before passing away in 1995. This is a baseball community, and Rocker, 30, who now lives near Atlanta, remains its No. 1 son.

“After that whole incident,” says Connie Mack Darnell, who played for Eddie Stanky at South Alabama and is David’s father, “our mayor, C. Jack Ellis, the first black mayor of Macon, had a long conversation with John and said, ‘We need to rally around this boy. He made a mistake, it was dumb stuff, but we need to rally around him, he’s one of ours.’

“The kids here are thrilled to death that John is playing again.”

Turner Sr. was a close friend of George Jones, whom the Little League complex is named after. George’s son Casey Jones – yes, they have a way with names down here – is the middle-school baseball coach at First Presbyterian, one of four baseball teams at the school. Casey Jones would make the run to Atlanta with Turner Jr. to watch Rocker pitch.

“John was always the last one out of the clubhouse,” recalls Jones, who played at Appalachian State with former Mets catcher Ron Hodges, “and he would say, ‘Coach, sorry I kept you, but I had four miles to run.’

Casey Jones says, with passion, “Believe me, we are not saying the things he said were OK. They were wrong, but he was also taken advantage of … I think the people in New York need to give John a chance and get to know him. Don’t judge him on what they’ve read.”

Connie Mack Darnell says, “We’re storytellers down here. We embellish. Part of the problem is John is so competitive and when he made those comments about New York, there was some real competition between the New York team and that Atlanta team [Mets and Braves].”

Darnell’s wife, Cyndi, who is the school’s librarian, says, “God, I’d hate for all of us to be judged on stupid things we said one time. John was young when he said that and he was acting like a dumb kid.”

John Rocker said it, though, and has to live with it. Perhaps, by pitching for the Ducks, trying to rebuild his career in New York, the lefty might be able to change people’s perception of him.

No matter what’s been said and how this all plays out, it’s clear John Rocker is one player who always can go home again.