Before and after games, journalists are permitted in the locker rooms and on the field. There are areas that are off-limits, such as the trainer’s room, the players’ private lounge, inside the white lines on the field. There are also matters of common decency. You don’t put a camera a foot or two from a player’s face. If a player says he can’t talk now but will later, you don’t force the issue.

Again, no one broke any rules of work or of decency. The attack was utterly unprovoked. Rogers went after a guy who was just doing his job did. The pitcher has problems with the media; he has problems with a lot of people. But the problems are of his own making.

Rogers has a history of imploding under pressure. Yes, he once pitched a perfect game. But the Yankees traded him for Scott Brosius in 1997 less than two years after acquiring him because Rogers was inconsistent. He tended to lose the games he was counted on to win. He wound up with the Mets in 1999 and did the same thing. When the Mets had to beat the Braves in the playoffs, Rogers walked in the run that sent Atlanta to the World Series.

He seemed to have found a happy home in his second stint in Texas. He pitched well and was an important part of the team. But before this season began, he started complaining about his contract and demanding a new one. Reporters wrote about it. Some columnists didn’t like the way he was behaving. Rogers decided not to talk to the media.

His problem wasn’t with the media but with management. If he had been a stand-up guy, he would have generated a lot of happy stories when he was winning a lot of ballgames. He could have made friends. Instead, he encouraged people to dislike him.

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So a week ago, he gets mad after a bad outing and tears about the clubhouse, causing a reported $3,000 in damage and breaking the little finger on his non-pitching right hand when he did a Kevin Brown on a water cooler. No cameras were there to provoke that outburst; he did it all on his own.

He took some heat in the press for that, too, as he should have. You act like a spoiled kid, you’ll be treated like one. Finally, Rogers blew up at a guy who was doing nothing but keeping a respectful distance and filming him as he walked onto the field to stretch.

Artest at least had a drink thrown at him and responded in the middle of an on-court scrap when tempers were already frayed. Rogers attacked somebody out of the clear blue, before a game, when people were stretching and life was just fine.

He crossed a line. He disgraced himself and his sport. He should be suspended for the rest of the year, not just 20 games.

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