Garvey: Group Has Interest in Mariners

SAN DIEGO — The same group that Padre first baseman Steve Garvey put together to try to buy the Padres has made “elementary inquiries” about buying the Seattle Mariners, Garvey said Sunday.

Garvey said he would not be one of the investors, however. He said he cannot be involved in the deal while he is still playing, but he could get involved after he retires.

His Padre contract, which will pay him $1.45 million this year, expires after this season.

Garvey would not reveal names of the individuals in his group, but he has said they have approximately $1 billion to spend. The group failed in its bid to buy the Padres, Garvey has said, because the Padre front office would not “let us in to see the books.”

At one point in the Padre negotiations, Garvey’s middle man was his friend and lawyer, Alan Rothenberg, the president of the Los Angeles Clippers.

Asked Sunday night if he was involved in the Mariner inquiries, Rothenberg said: “I can’t comment on it right now. Let me talk to Steve (Garvey) first.”

In March, Padre owner Joan Kroc accepted Mariner owner George Argyros’ offer to buy the team, but Argyros cannot assume control of the Padres until he sells the Mariners. Argyros did not return phone calls Sunday.

In an interview Friday with the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune, Garvey said inquiries to the Mariners had been made by “two gentlemen, though it could be one or two more with interests all over the country, including the Northwest. They are very reputable investors who are very capable of purchasing a ballclub, operating it and investing in it.

“They have just inquired on a purely elementary basis, just as to what the procedures are,” Garvey said.