AROUND THE MAJORS : Pro-Stadium Vote Dwindles in Seattle

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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Larry Walker, the Colorado Rockies’ right fielder, said it was “hot air” and nothing more.

“The best way to pop off is to go out and put a ‘W’ up,” Walker said. “The best way to pop off is with a bat and ball, not in the newspaper. That’s childish.

“I mean, how can an expansion team be arrogant and cocky? It’s only our third year in the league. We haven’t done anything yet.”

Walker was responding to comments by San Francisco Giant pitcher Mark Leiter that appeared in Thursday’s editions of The Times. Leiter said he hoped the Dodgers beat the Rockies in the National League West because the Rockies “are so cocky and arrogant, they think they invented the game. I get to pitch against them twice, and I’d love to knock them off.”

Said Walker: “If our hitters are cocky, what’s that make the Reds and Braves? Tell Leiter to make a list. How long has he been in the league, anyway? A year? I can’t imagine how much he’d be popping off if he’d been in the league for five years.”

Leiter said Thursday that his comments were taken out of context, that all he was trying to say was that power hitters tend to be cocky and arrogant, but Colorado Manager Don Baylor said he “didn’t buy Leiter’s excuses.”

“I didn’t know you could become that hated in just three years,” Baylor said. “Why are people so jealous of us, just because we play before 50,000 every night? [Steve] Avery, [Pat] Rapp, [Jim] Bowden, Leiter. I’m keeping a list [of people who have knocked the Rockies or Coors Field]. When those guys come looking for a place to play. . . . “