Art Thiel | Sportspress Northwest

Never having met a metaphor he could not twist beyond recognition, Art has been illuminating, agitating, amusing and annoying Puget Sound sports readers for a long time.

Along with Steve Rudman, he co-founded Sports Press Northwest because it didnt seem right that the Google monster should aggregate daily journalism into oblivion without at least a flesh wound from somebody.

Thiel and Rudman labored under the Seattle Post-Intelligencer globe until the print edition died an undeserved death in March, 2009. Art continued on at its online successor seattlepi.com while working on SPNWs creation. His radio commentaries can be heard Friday and Saturday mornings and Friday afternoon on KPLU-FM 88.9.

In 2003 he wrote the definitive book about the Seattle Mariners, Out of Left Field, which became a regional bestseller. In 2009, along with Rudman and KJR 950 afternoon host Mike Gastineau, Thiel authored The Great Book of Seattle Sports Lists, a cross between historylink.org and Mad Magazine that has become mandatory reading for any sports fan who has an indoor bathroom.

A graduate of Pacific Lutheran University as well as two dead papers and a live one, the News Tribune of Tacoma, he has become a fan of entrepreneurial online journalism because it allows him to continue a lifelong passion to take the English language to places it rarely visits willingly, and does not involve the cleaning of kennels or stables.

Thiel: 3 simple answers to why Kings stayed put

BY Art Thiel 05:27PM 05/17/2013

In a celebratory press conference Friday morning at City Hall, Mayor Kevin Johnson summed up the the practical and emotional drivers that preserved the Kings for Sacramento: "It's about jobs and it's about revitalizing downtown. It's about civic pride. It's about not letting somebody take something that isn't theirs."

COMMENTS

Thiel: Hansen can't lose much playing hardball

BY Art Thiel 11:40PM 05/15/2013

Responding to a question about whether Wednesday’s vote by owners wiped out Seattle’s future ability to create momentum for pursuing another team, NBA Commissioner David Stern said something intriguing. “Seattle,” he said, “will always act in its best interests.”

Spoken like the insincere, unctuous monopolist that he is, Stern used used a high-minded phrase to disguise his true meaning that Seattle tries hard but doesn't succeed.

COMMENTS

No expansion for Seattle; Hansen still fighting

BY Art Thiel 04:14PM 05/15/2013

The Kings will stay in Sacramento, according the NBA Board of Governors, which met in Dallas Wednesday and voted 22-8 in favor of accepting the relocation committee's earlier reported 7-0 recommendation. But Chris Hansen still says he wants to be the 20 percent partner of Maloof family that has not agreed to sell to anyone but Hansen.

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Thiel: In NBA showdown, is expansion on table?

BY Art Thiel 09:14PM 05/14/2013

(Updated 10 p.m. with story on expansion)

Wednesday is showdown day in Dallas, when Chris Hansen for the first time addresses representatives of 29 NBA owners, while owners of the 30th team, the Sacramento Kings, convey to the same audience they will not sell the franchise to anyone but Hansen, who wants to move the team to Seattle for a record NBA price. Meanwhile, investors who want to keep the team in Sacramento already have an endorsement from some owners and the support of Commissioner David Stern to keep the Kings where they are.

COMMENTS

Thiel: No reason for NBA to say no to either city

BY Art Thiel 07:41PM 05/13/2013

No action was taken Monday after the NBA relocation/finance committees met by teleconference, nor did the league comment about the meeting regarding the future of the Kings, according to several media outlets. So it's hard to say whether the shock has worn off from the weekend blitz by Chris Hansen, or owners were dancing, or despairing. And we may not know after Wednesday.

COMMENTS

Morales at DH solving big problem for Mariners

BY Art Thiel 06:57PM 05/12/2013

When Kendrys Morales hit a three-run homer to left in the first inning Sunday, it was among the relative few Mariners dingers to have benefited from the new dimensions of Safeco Field. But the larger point was the benefit of Morales to the Mariners.

COMMENTS

Hansen's 'backup' deal with Maloofs: 20% share

BY Art Thiel 11:14PM 05/11/2013

Chris Hansen was not grandstanding when he said he had numerous options to get the Kings from Sacramento. The latest maneuver Saturday in this unprecdented saga has the Maloof family refusing to sell to Sacramento bidders if relocation is denied, then operating the team after selling Hansen a 20 percent share for $125 million.

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Thiel: Hansen answers a kickback with a bribe

BY Art Thiel 07:09PM 05/10/2013

If basketball fans in Seattle and Sacramento can step back from their emotions just a moment, I hope they can appreciate that they are participants in a sports spectacle more epic than anything they will witness on an NBA court.

In a showcase week for how American business truly works, the Seattle bidders for the NBA Kings answered a kickback from the Sacramento bidders with a bribe. The game grows so ruthless that soon someone will leave the gun and take the cannoli.

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Thiel: One thing to lose to A's, but outdrawn?

BY Art Thiel 05:45PM 05/08/2013

The Oakland A's are the closest thing to a rival for the Mariners, the Mariners are as close to .500 (16-19) as they've been since early on, the weather is forecasted to be as close to summer as May gets around here. And the three weekend games against the A's are the only ones at Safeco in the first 24 days of the month. Close enough to get you to attend?

Or, as Dr. Seuss might have put the question: Do you need to be given a bat, a cat, or a cat in a beard hat?

COMMENTS

Thiel: The gay pro jock -- it's complicated

BY Art Thiel 06:30AM 05/06/2013

The local NBA events of last week kept things sufficiently busy that the national NBA story of the week, Jason Collins' declaration to Sports Illustrated that he was gay, passed on a secondary track. That can be a good thing, because it allows one to resist the tyranny of the urgent for -- horror of digital horrors -- a moment of reflection.

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Thiel: Frosty, a man no one could forget

BY Art Thiel 05:52PM 05/04/2013

TACOMA -- Absolutes in life happen nearly with the frequency of unicorns. But one was identified Saturday, and about a thousand heads nodded simultaneously in recognition. "No one," Scott Westering said, "'kinda' remembers the first time they met Frosty Westering.

"If you met the man, you remembered."

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Thiel: Here's a solution for NBA. You're welcome

BY Art Thiel 08:42PM 05/01/2013

I'm going to take Chris Hansen at his word that when he says he still wants to buy the Sacramento Kings, he will do all he can. And he has the paperwork.

For purposes of this little exercise, I'll also accept that the NBA has the right to determine where its franchises are located, for the reason that McDonald's never allows two of its stores to occupy the same intersection.

COMMENTS

Hansen fires back at NBA, says he has 'options'

BY Art Thiel 10:38PM 04/29/2013

Rejected by the NBA's relocation committee earlier Monday, Chris Hansen fired back Monday night on his website, sonicsarena.com, saying he will see through his purchase of the Sacramento Kings, and has numerous options.

COMMENTS

Thiel: Stern didn't want Seattle repeat; but . . .

BY Art Thiel 08:45PM 04/29/2013

If you're a Sonics fan nursing a boot-print bruise on your butt, keep in mind the one adjective that has always prevailed in this soul-sapping drama regarding the NBA Kings:

Unprecedented.

COMMENTS

Thiel: Mariners win series, Angels look worse

BY Art Thiel 06:26PM 04/28/2013

Eric Wedge says he likes how his Mariners "are carrying themselves," which presumably means he didn't care for how they were being carried on stretchers five days earlier.

But before they are signed out of critical care, consider who is entering -- their weekend opponent, the Los Angeles Angels. The sick men of the AL West (9-15), the preseason divisional favorites, have a bad case of bat rot.

COMMENTS

Thiel: Seahawks draft runs to USC theme

BY Art Thiel 08:40PM 04/27/2013

Anyone inspired to add music to the theme of the Seahawks draft need go no further than the song most hated by University of Washington football fans: "Fight On." Annoying as the USC fight song may be locally, the Seahawks of 2013 are going to look even more like the Trojans teams that Carroll coached to seven consecutive Pac-10 titles.

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Thiel: Seahawks' Michael rebuilds legs, image

BY Art Thiel 09:25PM 04/26/2013

Drama queen, or the next Leon Washington? A little of both. For sure, Christine (please, call him KRIS-tin) Michael is the Seahawks second-round draft choice at a position, running back, the Seahawks seemed stacked, with Marshawn Lynch and Robert Turbin.

Said Matt Barry, a Seahawks scout: "You're only an injury away, knock on wood."

COMMENTS

Seahawks stay put; Huskies' Trufant is a Falcon

BY Art Thiel 09:34PM 04/25/2013

What Seahawks GM John Schneider described as "the most unique draft" in his experience produced a largely drama-free first round Thursday, made more so locally by the Seahawks resisting any compulsion to jump up from their second-round pick, 56th overall -- only the fourth time they've sat out the first round.

COMMENTS

Thiel: Seahawks move down, take A&M RB

BY Art Thiel 09:00PM 04/25/2013

The Seahawks have done it again -- they stumped the band. Trading down to the last pick in the second round, the Seahawks selected a running back from Texas A&M, Christine (pronounced KRIS-tin) Michael, who in his senior year rushed for 417 yards and 12 carries (4.74 ypr) and amassed 3,331 all-purpose yards.

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Thiel: Seahawks good enough to pass on No. 1

BY Art Thiel 06:30AM 04/25/2013

As much credit as has been given the Seahawks' current regime regarding NFL draft picks, it's also reasonable to say it's a probably a good thing they traded away the No. 1 draft pick in the Thursday draft. The top end of the pro game's annual Christmas often has been cruel in Seattle, a pinata filled with as many dung beetles as road graders.

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