Mariner Sale Passes Straw Vote : Baseball: Also, two AL owners failed in attempt to diminish Vincent’s power in labor relations.

American and National league owners, meeting separately in New York Wednesday, gave straw-vote approval to the purchase of the Seattle Mariners by a group fronted financially by Hiroshi Yamauchi, president of Nintendo Co. Ltd. of Japan.

The formal vote will be taken in a joint owners meeting today.

NL owners, according to one, voiced unanimous approval of the sale. American League President Bobby Brown said he has reason to believe that the 11 votes or three-fourths majority required in his league “will be easily reached.”

The National League, an owner said, also had another lengthy discussion involving 1993 realignment, but that the Chicago Cubs remain strongly opposed.

The plan would move the Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals to the West with the Colorado Rockies, while the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves would move to the East with the Florida Marlins.

Commissioner Fay Vincent said again that he is considering the use of his “best interest of baseball power” to order the Cubs to accept realignment and hopes to meet with Cub officials next week.

Vincent also acknowledged that two AL owners who are members of the Player Relations Committee--Jerry Reinsdorf of the Chicago White Sox and Bud Selig of the Milwaukee Brewers--met with him in Chicago last week in an attempt to strip him of his authority to intervene in labor relations.

Vincent angered a group of militant owners when he played a conciliatory role in the last collective bargaining negotiations. The failed attempt by Reinsdorf and Selig, which reportedly had the support of Richard Ravitch, hired by Selig last year to be the owner’s chief negotiator, was viewed as an attempt to establish a more militant base for the next negotiations.

Vincent cited the Major League Agreement, which says that the power and authority of the commissioner “can not be diminished during his term of office.”

The contract with the players’ union expires after the 1993 season, but either side can call for a reopening of negotiations after the current season, and the owners have been weighing that option.

Selig and Reinsdorf refused comment Wednesday, but both have expressed behind the scenes criticism of Vincent’s role in the last talks, believing he usurped the PRC’s jurisdiction.