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The Mariners already set up camp over the weekend. This week, everyone else joins them, with their tent stakes, sleeping bags and World Series dreams in tow.

On the sun-dappled diamonds of Arizona and Florida, Spring Training has arrived, with pitchers and catchers on their way to fill the complexes of the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues for the next six weeks prior to every baseball fan's favorite two-word event: Opening Day.

For Seattle, this week's jump on things was a necessity. The team will travel to Japan on March 22 for the regular-season Opening Series against the Oakland A's on March 28-29, and with almost another week in between those games and their first regular-season game back in the U.S., it will give them the chance to start their ace, Felix Hernandez, in the first game on both continents, which means Games 1 and 3 of the 2012 campaign.

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