Mariners’ Woodward Retiring Next Month

Saying he was worn down by the job, Woody Woodward is retiring as general manager of the Seattle Mariners after 11 years running the team’s baseball operations.

At a news conference before the team opened its final homestand of the season on Friday, the 56-year-old Woodward emphasized he left on his own and was not pushed out.

“No,” Woodward said when asked if he had been fired. “I had another year on my contract that was still in place. When [Chief Executive] John Ellis and [team President] Chuck Armstrong talked to me about my present deal, it called for the ability of either the club or myself to elect to stop this period of general manager and move into a part-time consulting position.

“I chose to make the move now.”

Woodward, the longest-tenured general manager in the major leagues, ran the Mariners for three ownership groups. He said he is retiring Oct. 31 to take the Florida-based assignment.

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NBA owners unanimously approved the proposed merger of the business operations of the New York Yankees and New Jersey Nets, a person familiar with the vote said.

Major league baseball officials are still studying the agreement between the two clubs, which would create a closely held company called YankeeNets.

Under the proposed merger, the first of its kind in North American professional sports, the two teams would join ticket offices, promotions and marketing while maintaining autonomy in their sports operations.

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The Boston Red Sox won a coin flip and would be home for a tiebreaking playoff game against the New York Yankees to decide the American League East.

If the Yankees and Red Sox tie for the division lead as well as the wild card, thus ensuring that both reach the playoffs, Boston would be the division champion based on an 8-4 head-to-head record against New York, which would then become the wild card.

In the event of a tie for the wild card, a Red Sox-Oakland Athletics game would be played at Oakland and an A’s-Yankee game would be at New York.

The date of any tiebreakers would probably be Oct. 4, unless that day is needed to make up postponements that affect the races.

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The Oakland Athletics will wear patches with the No. 27 on their right sleeves for the rest of the season to honor Hall of Famer Jim “Catfish” Hunter, a former A’s star who died Sept. 9 of Lou Gehrig’s disease. The team also said that flags at the Oakland Coliseum will fly at half-staff for the rest of the season.

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Two games between the A’s and Baltimore Orioles wiped out by Hurricane Floyd will be made up Thursday as a twi-night doubleheader at Baltimore.