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TOP STORY:
Dodgers' Jordan consoles, lectures teammate after beanball incident

By JIM SATURDAY, Scripps Howard News Service

(SH) - Brian Jordan talked. Brian Jordan listened. Most important,
Brian Jordan drove.

Jordan whisked Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Guillermo Mota out of the
team clubhouse before the sixth inning even had ended Wednesday night
and drove him from St. Lucie back to Vero Beach. Mota had just been
ejected from a spring training game for setting off a benches-clearing
grab-fest by hitting Mets catcher Mike Piazza with a pitch.

Jordan didn't spend their time in his 2004 Range Rover showing off the
options or savoring the new-car smell.

"Good time to talk to the young guy," the veteran outfielder said. "He
made a mistake."

Jordan, 36, said based on their conversation, he believes Mota, 29, hit
Piazza out of pride. Last March, Piazza had angrily grabbed Mota by the
shirt collar in a spring-training incident captured on television and
replayed nationally.

"I guarantee you that if he wasn't in the eye last year, getting choked
on national TV, it wouldn't have happened," Jordan said Thursday.

Jordan stopped short of saying Mota verbally acknowledged hitting
Piazza intentionally.

But Jordan said:

"Once I gave my spiel and told him how wrong he was, I felt his pain. I
felt it was pride and emotion. He shook his head. That's what it was."

The 2002 incident occurred in the Dodgers' final spring training game.
Mota had hit Piazza with a pitch, accidentally, by all accounts.

Later, after being removed from the game, Mota crossed in front of the
Mets bench on his way out of Holman Stadium. Piazza rose to confront
him and grabbed him by the front of his shirt.

Reminders of the incident perpetuated the sting Mota felt, Jordan said.

"You've got a young kid going back to the Dominican Republic and
everybody remembering just that incident," Jordan said. "He's got to
live with that all winter long, and then coming to spring training,
your own teammates tease you once in a while. I guess he felt like he
had to prove himself."

The opportunity came when Piazza led off the sixth inning Wednesday,
the Dodgers leading 10-1. Mota's first pitch was inside and backed
Piazza off the plate. Piazza glared at Mota. The second pitch hit
Piazza in the upper back.

Piazza charged the mound. Mota threw his glove at Piazza as players
sailed in around them. Dodgers third baseman Adrian Beltre, who saw the
incident begin when he looked up from tying his shoe to watch Piazza
bat, wound up restraining Piazza as Mota backed safely into the Dodgers
dugout.

Mets players were critical of Mota's dash to the dugout. Jordan was
not.

"You want to get your message across, but you don't want to stand there
and get beat up," Jordan said. "We're outnumbered right there. We're
playing on their home turf, with all those young guys they've got on
the bench. You've got to watch yourself. That's why I hate team fights
early (in spring training). One has the advantage over the other. You
got guys you don't even know trying to sucker-punch you. If I was Mota,
I might have done the same thing."

Jordan said he might have reacted as Piazza did if he were in Piazza's
situation. But he also said the incident might never have occurred if
Piazza had chosen a more private place to approach Mota last spring.

"I think if Piazza would have gone further down (out of view) and
learned from me when me and Kevin Brown had our little thing," Jordan
said.

Two years ago, Jordan - then with the Braves - had an angry
spring-training exchange with Brown, now his teammate, after being hit
by a pitch. Their exchange also cleared the team benches but took place
in the right-field corner at Holman Stadium, near the visitors'
dressing room.

"You go off the field, where the camera's not going to be on to see
everything," Jordan said.

Jordan said he hustled Mota out of the clubhouse because the team -
"from the manager (Jim Tracy) on down" - thought it necessary.

"I wasn't worried about Piazza. I was worried about the fans," Jordan
said. "You should have heard some of the comments the fans were making
after the fight. It was pretty ugly. Get out of here before somebody
does something stupid."

Before he dropped Mota off, Jordan said Mota phoned his mother to let
her know he was all right.

There was no need to spend addition time with Mota once they got back
to town, he said.

"We went our separate ways," Jordan said. "I said enough in the truck."