Seattle: Piniella Can Go, for Price

The Seattle Mariners said Monday they are open to letting teams interview Manager Lou Piniella and will release him from the final year of his contract if adequate compensation can be arranged.

Piniella told Mariner officials Friday in a meeting at Tampa, Fla., that he had decided not to return to Seattle for the 2003 season because of personal and family reasons.

Piniella has managed the Mariners for 10 seasons, guiding the team to three consecutive playoff appearances and a record-tying 116 victories in 2001.

Piniella met with Mariner CEO Howard Lincoln, President Chuck Armstrong and General Manager Pat Gillick.

So far, no other teams have contacted the Mariners, the team said in a statement. But “in view of his long service to the Mariners,” the team will entertain contact from interested clubs and seek to negotiate “reasonable compensation” in exchange for releasing him.

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The Angels’ American League championship series-clinching victory over Minnesota on Fox on Sunday, going head to head with the Oakland Raider-St. Louis Ram game on CBS, got more than double the rating.

The Angel game drew a 16.6 Nielsen rating and a 46 share in Los Angeles; the football game had a 7.8/17.

The 16.6 was the lowest L.A. rating for the three AL championship series games at Edison Field, but the 46 share was the highest. Game 3 got a 17.5/32; Game 4 an 18.7/36.

A rating represents a percentage of all television households and a share represents television households where television is being watched. Fewer people were watching television Sunday afternoon than Saturday evening, which explains the lower rating.

In St. Louis, the football game did slightly better than the Cardinals’ game at San Francisco. The Rams got a 34.5/57, the Cardinals and Giants a 34.4/45 and the Angels and Twins a 5.3/9.

In San Francisco, the Cardinals and Giants got a 21.7/37, the Raiders and Rams a 13.9/34 and the Angels and Twins a 6.6/16.

The Angels and Twins on Sunday got the highest rating in Minneapolis-St. Paul--a 31.6/51.

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Houston catcher Gregg Zaun had surgery to repair a partially torn tendon in his right elbow.

Zaun, 31, batted .222 with three home runs and 24 runs batted in last season, his first with Houston. He sat out the first 98 games of 2002 after injuring his calf during spring training.

Recovery time is expected to be four months.