Braves’ Nixon, Reds’ Charlton Suspended : Baseball: Pitcher also fined for comments after hitting Scioscia. He will appeal. Claire calls penalty appropriate.

Cincinnati Red pitcher Norm Charlton was suspended for seven days and fined by the National League on Monday for deliberately hitting Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia and saying he might try to hit him again.

The suspension was effective immediately, but Charlton appealed NL President Bill White’s ruling, making the left-handed reliever eligible to play pending a hearing.

“I have a regret for talking about it publicly,” Charlton said. “It’s probably not the way I should have handled it, but that’s the way I did it. There’s not much I can do about it now. I made a mistake by saying it.”

Joe Kelley, a member of the Reds’ public relations department, said Charlton appealed both the suspension and the undisclosed fine.

“In all honesty, he (White) needs time to gather his information,” Charlton said. “So if he hears about it from CNN or ESPN or reads about it in the paper and gathers his information without gathering any facts, that’s not very intelligent. So he needs to take whatever time he needs to take to gather his facts and make an intelligent decision.”

A statement from White said, “Charlton was suspended for his comments admitting he deliberately threw at Mike Scioscia of the Dodgers and his threats concerning hitting Mr. Scioscia in the future.”

The Reds were scheduled to begin a two-game series in Los Angeles on Monday night.

“I think the action that Bill White has taken is appropriate because Norm Charlton was out of line with his actions and with his words,” Dodger General Manager Fred Claire said.

When asked if a seven-day suspension was enough, Claire said, “I think it’s appropriate.”

Charlton hit Scioscia on the arm in a game at Cincinnati on Sept. 9 because he believed Scioscia was stealing signs.

“I threw at him. I hit him on the arm, but I didn’t mean to hit him on the arm,” Charlton told a Cincinnati newspaper reporter after the game. “He’ll be lucky if I don’t rip his head off the next time I’m pitching.”

Red Manager Lou Piniella immediately reprimanded Charlton, and Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda was livid when he heard the remarks.

“He made a big mistake by saying that,” Lasorda said. “It’s a disgrace to baseball for a guy to make a statement like that.”