Rocco Mediate, right, congratulates partner Brandt Snedeker after Snedeker’s long putt on the 15th hole yesterday. Mediate and Snedeker are one shot off the lead going into today.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

BARRINGTON — Johnny Miller was right.

“Guys with the name Rocco don’t get on the trophy, do they?” Miller –– whose name is on the trophy –– said during the telecast of the U.S. Open.

Nope, they don’t.

Not yet, anyway.

The thriller at Torrey Pines in which Tiger Woods, the world’s greatest player, needed 91 holes to edge popular underdog Rocco Mediate, was the 108th U.S. Open championship, and not one of them has been won by a guy named Rocco.

The most common name on the list of winners is Willie, which appears six times (Willie Smith, Willie MacFarlane, and Willie Anderson, who won four Opens.) That’s one more time than Jack (Nicklaus, a four-time winner; and, in an upset that was bigger than Mediate’s would have been, Jack Fleck, who beat Ben Hogan in a playoff at the Olympic Club in San Francisco in 1955.) Bantam Ben did, however, win four other times.

There’s been a Cary (twice) and a Gary. There’s been a Lloyd and a Lawson. There’s been an Orville –– but no Wilbur –– and an Olin. There’s been a Horace, a Hubert, and, three times, a Hale. Twice, there has been a Ralph, and a Retief, too. Count two Ernies, two Curtises, and two Paynes. Three times, an Alex –– as well as a Bobby –– have won. Two Toms have won the Open, as well as two Tommys and two Tonys (Jacklin, in 1970, and Manero, in 1936.) There’s been a Jerome, an Angel, a Cyril, a Julius, and an Arnold. And, now, three Tigers. Or is it Eldricks?

At any rate, no Rocco.

Unfortunately.

Because a lot of people were pulling for Mediate to pull off the upset.

“It was hard,” Davis Love III said yesterday, “not to have a soft spot in your heart for Rocco, who was trying to knock off ‘Superman.’ ”

“I was rooting for Rocco,” said Billy Andrade, who is teamed with Love at the CVS Caremark Charity Classic at Rhode Island Country Club. “The guy’s 45 years old, and probably will never have an opportunity like that again. I wanted to see the underdog win."

It was that sense of Rocco as the underdog — as Everyman, competing against “Superman” — that Miller was trying to convey in what he thought was a humorous way, saying Mediate “looks like the guy who cleans Tiger’s swimming pool.”

Not everyone found that funny.

Some people were offended.

That happens stunningly often considering we live in a society in which civility is in increasingly short supply, with words once considered crude now in everyday use.

Among those people whose sensibilities were shaken was A. Kenneth Cingoli, chairman of the National Italian American Foundation, who sent a letter to NBC demanding Miller’s suspension.

The National Pool Boys Association has yet to be heard from, but, if anyone should be upset it should be Mediate and –– guess what? –– he’s not.

“Johnny’s fine,” he said yesterday after teaming with Brandt Snedeker to shoot 62 –– one shot off the lead. “He says what’s on his mind. He shoots from the hip.”

Or the lip, as the case may be.

“When I first heard (what Miller said on the telecast), I couldn’t believe it. I thought ‘Hey, Tiger’s a little different name too.’ Then I figured,” Mediate said with a smile, “maybe I should be mad about it.

“But I know he didn’t mean anything by it. Johnny says a lot of things people get angry at. I didn’t ask for an apology. But he sent one to my cell phone the next day.

“He sent me a voice mail the Tuesday after the Open (playoff last Monday). He said he’d watched the replay and he didn’t mean it the way it sounded. I haven’t called him back, because I haven’t had time. But I’m not concerned about it.”

Billy Andrade, who co-hosts the CVS event with Brad Faxon, joked about Miller’s comments yesterday morning, before the tournament started.

“I understand the state legislature in Rhode Island passed a law that’s going to ban Johnny Miller from the state,” Andrade said. “I think there are 17 ‘Roccos’ in the crowd right here.”

As he is everywhere, Mediate was a crowd favorite yesterday.

“Rocco gets people behind him,” Snedeker said. “He’s not afraid to talk to people and have a good time.”

It’s been a busy time for Mediate since his memorable battle with Tiger at Torrey Pines.

“I’m exhausted, physically and mentally,” he said.

He’s also much more exhilarated than disappointed, despite having lost the Open playoff.

“I would have liked to have won,” he said yesterday, “but there was nothing else I could have done. I played as well I could play. I couldn’t have enjoyed myself more. I was supposed to get my butt handed to me. I was outgunned and outmanned, but I still thought I could win.”

And he almost did.

What he did win was countless fans who enjoyed not only his competitive fire, but also the smile he had on his face throughout the Open.

“Playing with him today,” Snedeker said, “I felt like I was playing with Elvis.”

jdonalds@projo.com