Mercifully for the baseball-adoring public in Pulaski, the anxiety didn't last long.

After its first Appalachian League season turned out to be a rousing sporting and business success, the Seattle Mariners organization is set to announce today that it will renew its player development deal with Pulaski Baseball, Inc., for two more years.

"I felt good that they'd say they were coming back, but things like that can still go wrong," Tom Compton of the local ownership group said Wednesday.

A press conference to make the announcement is scheduled for 8:30 this morning. League president Lee Landers is expected to be on hand.

"He didn't even know about it until I told him today," Compton said.

Negotiations took place over the phone between Compton and Mariners farm boss Greg Hunter. No officials from the Seattle front office are expected to be on hand for today's announcement.

"They've been very pleased at the way things have gone here for them," Compton said.

Baseball left Pulaski after the 2006 season when the Toronto Blue Jays organization pulled out. Calfee Park went vacant in 2007 when another team could not be secured.

The Mariners were the surprise of the league when they went 40-27 and won the East Division. Pulaski was swept by perennial league power Elizabethton in the best-of-three league championship series last week.

Pulaski was fourth in the league in attendance, drawing an average of a little over 1,000 per night for 33 home games. Baseball has never done better in Pulaski, the smallest market in the Appalachian League.

Now the last loose end has been tied up. The Mariners had until Sept. 15 to make their intentions known. Compton, for one, wasn't going to rest easy until he heard something for sure.

Part of the problem for Seattle in pulling the trigger on a new deal has been its lack of a general manager. Bill Bavasi was fired June 17 and hasn't yet been replaced.

It was clear the organization was reluctant to make major business decisions before a new GM was in place. At this point, there was no alternative. Compton said he has been led to understand the organization has been similarly up in the air with other franchises in its minor-league network.