NEW YORK -- John Rocker's appeal of his suspension will start next Wednesday.

Lawyers for the players' association and the commissioner's office met Thursday and set the timetable for the hearing before arbitrator Shyam Das.

	Glavine

	Rocker

On Monday, commissioner Bud Selig suspended the Atlanta Braves reliever until May 1, a period that covers all 45 days of spring training and the first 28 days of the season. He also fined Rocker $20,000 and ordered him to undergo sensitivity training.

The union claims baseball doesn't have "just cause" to punish Rocker for his remarks to a magazine in November.

Braves pitcher Tom Glavine was quoted Thursday as saying he has mixed feelings about the grievance. Glavine, Atlanta's player representative, asked the union not to seek too large a reduction in his teammate's penalty.

"There's part of me that thinks it would have gone a long way toward showing remorse if John would have just said, 'OK, forget it. That's the price I'm going to pay, and I'll pay it,' " Glavine was quoted as saying in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "But at the same time, I understand. Nobody's ever been suspended this long for saying something stupid."

According to preliminary research by the players' association, this is the first time a player has been disciplined for speech since New York Yankees outfielder Jake Powell was suspended for 10 days by commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis in 1938.

Powell, according to Landis, disparaged blacks on a radio interview.

Rocker told Sports Illustrated in December that he would never play for a New York team because he didn't want to ride a subway train "next to some queer with AIDS." He also mocked foreigners and called a black teammate a "fat monkey."

Glavine said he expects Braves players to sit down with Rocker when he returns, listen to his side and air their opinions.

He said it was important to his teammates for punishment to be imposed.

"Now, in my mind, it's going to be more about how does John Rocker act from this day forward, day in and day out, to show me that he's sorry and that things have changed," he said.