Steve Garvey Is Asked to Quit Discussing Purchase of Mariners

A. Bartlett Giamatti, president of the National League, has asked San Diego Padre first baseman Steve Garvey to keep quiet about the potential sale of the Seattle Mariners.

Garvey had said last Sunday that the group he put together last winter to buy the Padres is now interested in buying the Mariners, adding that he had removed himself from the group. Even so, Giamatti is apparently concerned about a potential conflict of interest.

So he telephoned Garvey on Tuesday.

“We had a cordial chat about a delicate situation,” Giamatti said Wednesday. “It was an unprecedented situation, so I just wanted to be in touch with him. I urged him . . . to take care with what he said.”

Garvey agreed that the chat had been pleasant.

“I told him I couldn’t be involved (in the Mariner sale), nor was I,” said Garvey, who says he probably will retire after the 1988 season. “He said it was best for me not to elaborate on anything. . . . He asked if I could avoid discussing it, and I said, ‘Sure.’ ”

But after the 1988 season, Garvey said, he could become involved with the Mariners.