Major League Baseball players have been suspended for entire seasons for drug use, barred from baseball for gambling or fined for criticizing managers and owners.

But never, before John Rocker, has Major League Baseball handed down such a harsh sentence that will accomplish so little.

There can be no doubt that what Rocker, relief pitcher for the Atlanta Braves, said to Sports Illustrated magazine was stupid. He said he didn’t want to play for a New York City team because he didn’t want to sit “next to some queer with AIDS” on a subway train, he said he didn’t understand where foreigners come from and he called a black teammate a “fat monkey.”

His comments were offensive, insensitive, ignorant and, most of all, stupid.

But they do not justify the a 28-day suspension, a $20,000 fine and an order to undergo sensitivity training.

John Rocker’s comments were one of two things. Either they were spoken out of pain and vengeance toward a nasty New York crowd that pelted him with rocks last October, or they were the manifestation of a long and bitter bigotry toward minority groups.

If they were the first, Rocker shot his mouth off without thinking, and all he can do is apologize. If they were the second, no amount of sensitivity training can change his bigoted ways.

Either way, Rocker didn’t break any laws. He was just stupid.

That stupidity does need to be disciplined, but not by Major League Baseball. Rocker needs to be disciplined by the minorities, foreigners and homosexuals, not to mention any other people he offended, who work with him on the baseball diamond every day.

Free speech is funny. It is for the most part unregulated, but it does come with a price. The price is accountability to other people for words said about them.

That’s why every time John Rocker walks into a baseball clubhouse, he’ll be punished by cold shoulders and harsh words. Every time he visits Shea Stadium in New York he’ll be punished with taunts and jeers. Every time he meets a player who he insulted he’ll be punished by having to apologize again and again.

Major League Baseball isn’t a moral operation. It propagates greed and self-interest and doesn’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to being racially sensitive.

Rocker doesn’t owe anything to Major League Baseball. What he owes is to the men with whom he plays.

Maybe the sensitivity training Rocker undergoes will do something for him. And maybe the $20,000 fine and the time out of the game will bring it home.

But Rocker will be punished for his remarks by fellow baseball players for a long time to come.

He doesn’t need any more punishment than that.

Iowa State Daily Editorial Board: Sara Ziegler, Greg Jerrett, Kate Kompas, Carrie Tett and David Roepke.