Former major league pitcher John Rocker said that White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen couldn't expect much from sensitivity training. Rocker, who went through it himself, said it was a "farce" and also said he never paid the $500 fine levied against him for his own racist and homophobic remarks.

Major League Baseball, however, disputed Rocker's claims, ESPN reported on Monday.

"Consider the source," Rich Levin, a spokesman for commissioner Bud Selig, told ESPN.

Levin told ESPN that MLB was told by Rocker's agent at the time that the pitcher had donated $500 to charity, and that records showed Rocker had indeed attended sensitivity training.

Rocker had claimed that he spent only 15 minutes in the class before leaving the room.

"What actually happened in those sensitivity classes, we don't know," Levin told ESPN. "He might have slept through the whole thing, but at the end of it, we did receive verification that he attended [the meetings]."

Major League Baseball ordered Guillen to attend sensitivity training after the manager used a homophobic slur in remarks about a Chicago newspaper columnist.

Rocker, who played last year with the Long Island (N.Y.) Ducks but is currently out of baseball, was ordered to a similar program after making racist and homophobic remarks to Sports Illustrated in 2000.

But it doesn't sound like Rocker got much out of the training, the Tribune reported.

"The guy told me when I got there I had to show up to make it look good for people, so after about 15 minutes I left and walked right out of the room and it satisfied the powers that be," Rocker said.

Guillen, whom Rocker played with for the Atlanta Braves in 1998-99, originally said in an interview with ESPNDeportes that he would not attend the training, but he later said he would.

Rocker called the sensitivity training "a farce" and a public-relations ploy, the Tribune reported.

"It was a farce, a way for the scared little man, Bud Selig, to get people off his (back),” Rocker said, the newspaper reported.

Rocker also defended Guillen, saying he had a right to free speech, the Tribune reported.

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“This is a free country,” Rocker said, the newspaper reported. “If he wants to use a lewd term, he should be able to use a lewd term. Can't you use a lewd term in America if you want?”

ESPN, citing a "prominent player agent and an AL executive", reported that it was unlikely that Rocker could have avoided paying the fine.

"Baseball keeps a record of it," the club official said. "If you don't pay, they send another letter to the player and copy the club and say, 'If you don't pay, there'll be a penalty.' I'm guessing he paid it and probably didn't know he paid it."