BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE MAJORS : Mariners Still Without a Home

The longest road trip in Seattle Mariners’ history was extended Thursday when the players’ union rejected Tacoma’s Cheney Stadium as an alternate site to the Kingdome.

Seattle had a nine-game homestand scheduled to begin Tuesday, with games against the Angels, Kansas City and Texas.

Mariners infielder Mike Blowers lives in Tacoma, about 30 miles south of Seattle.

“I never expected it to happen,” he said. “I made plans early this week to take my family to Anaheim.”

After the rejection, the American League announced the Mariners will play those games on the road while King County officials scramble to remove 40,000 faulty acoustical ceiling tiles from the Kingdome.

“I think when all was said and done, players couldn’t get themselves, based on their knowledge of the stadium, to agree to play there or be convinced that it was up to major league standards,” Eugene Orza, the associate general counsel of players’ association, said in New York. “They regard it as a substandard field. I don’t say that critically or perjoratively of Tacoma.”

Players for all three opposing teams rejected the Tacoma option.

“When you have 75 players vote against it and 25 for it, who are you going to listen to?” said Dan Wilson, the Mariners player representative. “If we were the other team, we’d vote the same way.”

Seattle would have had to play day games in Cheney because the Pacific Coast League Tacoma Tigers are playing night games there. The Mariners were in Detroit on Thursday, on a road trip that wraps up Sunday against the Chicago White Sox.

The Kingdome has been closed since July 19, when four ceiling tiles dropped into the stands shortly before a game against Baltimore. Two Orioles games were postponed and a subsequent four-game series against Boston scheduled for the Kingdome was played at Fenway Park.

County officials say they expect all of the 26-pound ceiling tiles will be removed by Aug. 10.

Acoustical consultants hired by the county say between 90,000 and 110,000 square feet of vinyl-covered insulation will be needed to control noise inside the Kingdome.

The cost of that stopgap solution would be about $500,000, Deputy County Executive Pearl McElheran said. Rental of cranes and other equipment needed for the job may cost hundreds of thousands dollars more.

Asked if the Kingdome could be ready for a Mariners home series that begins Aug. 22, McElheran said. “I think we can do it by then.”

She also said there was an outside chance the work could be completed in time for the Aug. 8-10 series against the Rangers.

The NFL’s Seattle Seahawks are playing their Aug. 13 exhibition game against Tampa Bay in the University of Washington’s Husky Stadium, and are considering playing their Aug. 20 exhibition game against Minnesota there.

They said they expect the Kingdome to be ready for their regular-season home opener against San Diego on Sept. 18.