Appeal Hearings on Hold

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- The timing of their suspensions and appeal hearings might allow Mike Piazza of the New York Mets and Guillermo Mota of the Dodgers to begin the season on the field.

Bob DuPuy, baseball’s chief operating officer, is attending meetings in Phoenix through Thursday and probably would not conduct hearings until next week. Piazza and Mota, fined and suspended, each for five regular-season games, for their roles in last week’s brawl between the Dodgers and Mets, have until Monday to file appeals through the players’ union.

The suspensions are scheduled to begin opening day, and there’s a chance the appeal process wouldn’t be over before the season starts.

“[An appeal hearing] could happen anywhere, but Bob hasn’t talked to anyone yet and he hasn’t scheduled anything,” said Rich Levin of the commissioner’s office. The clubs open the season March 31 -- the Dodgers against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Phoenix, and the Mets play host to the Chicago Cubs at Shea Stadium. Piazza, the Mets’ All-Star catcher, and Mota, a Dodger reliever, were still considering their options Tuesday.

Dan Lozano, Piazza’s agent, and Adam Katz, Mota’s representative, are consulting with the union.

“We don’t determine whether players appeal, that’s not up to us,” said Bob Watson, baseball’s administrator in charge of on-field discipline. “We’re bound by a process and we’re going to work our way through it.”

*

Although Manager Jim Tracy has not announced an opening-day starter, many in the organization believe Hideo Nomo will get the assignment. There also has been talk of Odalis Perez starting the opener, but Nomo is the likely choice.

But as long as the door is ajar, Kevin Brown hopes he’s still under consideration.

The former staff ace, sidelined most of the last two seasons, has been impressive in Grapefruit League play, going 1-0 with a 0.90 earned-run average in four games. Brown, who has 11 strikeouts without a walk in 10 innings, threw 67 pitches in his last outing, putting him on pace to return to the rotation.

“I would like to be in a position where I’m healthy enough and throwing the ball well enough to where it was my job,” Brown said of an opening-day start. “I don’t know if they’ve made a final decision about it one way or another.

“Does it matter to me? Sure. Of course, I’d love to be throwing on opening day. But under the circumstances, I’m not going to be upset at anybody if that doesn’t happen because of the way things could pan out. That’s [management’s] decision.”