Hiroshi Yamauchi, the Japanese industrialist financing a bid to purchase the Seattle Mariners, has never been to a baseball game and says, ''I don`t really like baseball.''

Yamauchi, the 64-year-old president of Nintendo Co. Ltd. of Kyoto, also says he doesn`t like to play video games, the source of his company`s wealth. ''Let me put it this way,'' Yamauchi was quoted as saying in an interview published in Saturday`s editions of The New York Times. ''Baseball, well, baseball has never really interested me.''

Yamauchi has proposed to pay $75 million of a $125 million bid to purchase the Mariners from Jeff Smulyan and keep the team in Seattle. Commissioner Fay Vincent has called the deal unlikely because of baseball`s preference for local and North American owners.

''I imagine there are a lot of opinions on this matter in the United States, but that is not a concern to me,'' Yamauchi was quoted as saying. ''I thought about whether I could do a service to Seattle, and what others think about it, that is their business.''

He said he doesn`t intend to be involved in running the team.

''What do I know about running a baseball team?'' he said.

Video games?

''I really don`t understand them,'' he was quoted as saying.