Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
LIVE VIDEO: NBCSports.com shows Washington-New York, with alternate camera angles, HD views and more.
PBT: Jeremy Lin wasn't his hot self on Saturday, but he still led the Knicks to victory.
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Golf's dream pairing - Woods and Mickelson - is on the course in the final round at Pebble Beach. Jason Sobel has hole-by-hole reports.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) -England defender Joleon Lescott preserved Manchester City's two-point lead in the Premier League by scoring a second-half winner in a 1-0 victory at Aston Villa on Sunday.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
AP
SEATTLE - Ken Griffey Jr. had only one concern about his first Mariners home game in 10 years.
“Don’t trip on the red carpet!”’ the 39-year-old slugger said.
The Mariners rolled out that and much more for Griffey in their latest — and perhaps loudest — home opener since 1982.
More strong starting pitching, this time from 2008 flop Carlos Silva, preceded Franklin Gutierrez’s leadoff double in the 10th inning. Gutierrez then scored the winning run on a throwing error by pitcher Scot Shields, giving Seattle a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday.
The surprising Mariners (6-2) are off to their best start since 2001, the last time they reached the playoffs. They have won five consecutive games, longer than any win streak in 2008.
“It’s more about the 25 guys in here, not just me. It just so happens for me it was my return, but we’ve got something special going on in here,” Griffey said.
Baseball’s active leader with 612 home runs went 1-for-3 with a walk in his first home game for the Mariners since Sept. 26, 1999.
Seattle remade itself last winter — from first-time general manager Jack Zduriencik and his new scouting staff, through Don Wakamatsu, the first Asian-American manager in the major leagues, and new players such as Gutierrez. Playing his first game in Seattle since being acquired from Cleveland in December, the dynamic center fielder tracked down two more long drives, like Griffey used to do during the star’s Gold Glove heyday here 15 years ago.
And for this game, anyway, Seattle felt like it did during the Mariners’ highest times of a decade ago.
Griffey has the same parking spot and same corner locker inside “The House that Junior Built” that he had for half a season before Seattle granted his request and traded him to his hometown Cincinnati Reds nine years ago.
That house, Safeco Field, was sold out for just the second time in 12 months. It rocked when he was introduced before the game and again before he singled in his first at-bat — “Why wouldn’t I?” Griffey said, shrugging about the hit.
The stadium’s public-address system blared the same “Hip Hop Hooray” song from Naughty By Nature that was Griffey’s walk-up song during his first go-round here.
“When they called ‘Ken Griffey Jr.!’ I was still on the mound (in the bullpen), but I stopped to watch,” Silva said of the pregame scene. “It was amazing. I never saw anything like that, that crowd, that intensity.”
Seemingly every one of the 45,958 fans in attendance was standing for Griffey in the first inning, and he tipped his batting helmet to both sides of the stadium. Longtime team president Chuck Armstrong, instrumental in getting Griffey to return, also stood in his box high above home plate, pointing and marveling at a raucous scene that seemed almost unfathomable while last year’s 101-loss season was mercifully ending.
This season’s home opener didn’t sell out until after Griffey signed in February.
Griffey, who was going to start in right field until his back stiffened, was the designated hitter. The only fielding Griffey did was catching the ceremonial first pitch from friend Harold Reynolds, a former Mariners Gold Glove second baseman who helped show the teenage Griffey around the major leagues beginning in 1989.
Gutierrez doubled off Shields (0-1) before Yuniesky Betancourt deftly dropped a sacrifice bunt near the third-base line. Shields fielded it cleanly but his hurried throw was well high and wide of first base.
The ball caromed off the railing at the box seats and down the right-field line. Gutierrez ran joyously home, holding the top of his batting helmet and bracing for the pounding he received near the plate from his new teammates.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
DeMarco: Plug in a well-heeled ownership group and negotiate one of those mega-bucks TV deals that are going around, and the Dodgers could become the west coast version of the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.
 | Slideshow |
 |
The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. more photos |
HardballTalk headlines |
 | Interactive |
 |
 | Slideshow |
 | Unbreakable records in baseball A look at the most unbreakable records in baseball including Nolan Ryan's seven no-hitters. |
| Slideshow |
 | The top tools of baseball You hear a lot about the tools of baseball, but who are the best hitters, fielders and pitchers? We break it down. more photos |
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
NBC Sports TV and livestream listings
Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.