A GRIP ON SPORTS • There is a speech in "Field of Dreams" or "The Natural" or "It Happens Every Spring" about baseball being the one constant in an ever-changing America. And the one constant in an ever-changing American League? The Mariners will struggle against left-handers. Read on.

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• OK, I know James Earl Jones made the steamroller speech in "Field of Dreams," so don't chide me in the comments. I was just having some fun. That's why I mentioned the god-awful "It Happens Every Spring." If you haven't seen it, don't. Or do, if you like high camp – and really believe you are only a wood-repelling invention away from pitching in the big leagues. Sort of like C.J. Wilson. The veteran left-hander used something repellant yesterday to beat the Mariners 2-0. After all, the revamped M's lineup couldn't be shut out by a lefty again, could it? Not after the off-season additions of Nelson Cruz and Rickie Weeks. The good news is each of those two new players had a hit. The bad news? They were the only two the M's had yesterday. James Paxton gave up two back-to-back – a double to Albert Pujols and an opposite-field home run to David Freese – and that was enough to end any hopes of an undefeated season. Or an undefeated April. Or, heck, even an undefeated first week. That's baseball. Every team wins a third of its games, every team loses a third. It's what happens in the other third that determines success, or not. Tonight, with Hisashi Iwakuma on the mound, the M's will try to win the final third of the season-opening homestand. It wouldn't hurt of Roy Hobbs would show up and play leftfield. 

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• WSU: The Cougars gave baseball coach Donny Marbut his 300th career win last night and they did it against Gonzaga. Jacob Thorpe was bundled up and in the press box at Bailey-Brayton Field to give us this game story. ... Jacob was also at spring football practice yesterday afternoon and that yielded this feature on Graham Harrell and his first-year as an assistant coach. Jacob also posted a video of Mike Leach after practice as well as practice summary and a morning post with links. ... The WSU women had a productive golf outing this week. ... ESPN.com's Pac-12 blog caught up with the offensive change at WSU. ... The Pac-12 isn't on board with the way the NCAA investigated and came down on USC.

• Gonzaga: The Zags are expected to be good again next year. Every early top 25 for next year has them included, most in the top 10.

• EWU: Spring football practice is also underway in Cheney with an early addition. Jim Allen has this story on a freshman getting a running start.

• Whitworth: It was a sad day on the Whitworth campus yesterday when news broke about the death in a plane crash of former athletic director Aaron Leetch. Tom Clouse has the story.

• Shock: The Shock have made another change at quarterback but the logistics of the move have been pretty complicated. Jim Meehan has more in this notebook.

• Chiefs: It looked for most of the night as if the Chiefs season would end with a 1-0 loss to Everett. But a goal with less than six seconds left sent the sixth game of the WHL opening-round series into overtime. Then a second. And a third. Finally, the Silvertips scored, won 2-1 and moved on to the next round. Chris Derrick was there and he has this game story and a blog post. ... Colin Mulvany has the photo report. ... Everett's next opponent is Portland, which eliminated Seattle in overtime last night.

• Seahawks: The Hawks have some holes on the offensive line. Is the draft a way to address them? ... We found more answers to other pressing questions.

• Mariners: The M's lineup against a left-hander had the players everyone expected yesterday, just in different spots. For example, Weeks was the designated hitter and Cruz was in right field. Lloyd McClendon's justification? He didn't have one. "There's no deep thought in it," he said. ... Anyhow, it didn’t work. The M's lost 2-0 to C.J. Wilson. Such an outcome is why John Blanchette writes about not making too many assumptions before the games are played. ... John also has this story on Tyler Olson's major league debut. It was one pitch and resulted in two outs. ... The M's announced their full-season minor league rosters yesterday.

• Sounders: The newest Sounder to keep track of is left-back Dylan Remick, a youngster who made his first start of the season against Houston. ... Here's one man's MLS power rankings.

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• Seriously, "It Happens Every Spring" is so bad it's kind of good, if you get my drift. Another thing that happens every spring is the Masters, which kicks off today with the par-3 contest, or kids day if you will. And we're not talking about Jordan Spieth. Until later ...