BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE MAJORS : Pro-Mariner Edge Dwindles in Vote

With the future of the Seattle Mariners in the balance, a proposal to help build a $325-million stadium for the team led by a scant 310 votes after a partial count of absentee ballots.

Nearly 36,000 absentee ballots were tallied to clarify the results of a King County vote. That left the stadium proposal ahead 235,591 to 235,281. About 15,000 absentee ballots remain. Final results are to be posted Monday, said John Charles, county manager of records and elections.

“It’s not very encouraging for either side,” County Executive Gary Locke said. “It been a roller-coaster ride.”

Before the additional votes were tabulated, the measure led by about 4,000 votes.

Mariner officials declined comment, saying they would wait until the final results were known.

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Nicholas Zumas, a baseball salary arbitrator since 1991, has been chosen as the sport’s permanent arbitrator for grievances.

Last month, owners fired George Nicolau, who had been baseball’s arbitrator since 1987. Nicolau remains arbitrator for the NHL.

Zumas, 64, has been a salary arbitrator in baseball for five seasons and has issued five decisions for club figures and two for player figures.

A number of cases could be heard by Zumas in the coming months. Players filed several grievances during the 7 1/2-month strike, and those cases haven’t been heard. Among the issues are whether players on the disabled list during the strike should be paid and whether players should be credited for service time during the strike.

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Tony Cuccinello, who lost the American League batting title by a single point on the final day of the 1945 season, died of congestive heart failure at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, Fla. He was 87.

Cuccinello, an infielder who played with five teams during his 15-year career, batted .308 in 1945, but lost the crown on the final day of the season to the New York Yankees’ Snuffy Stirnweiss.