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 didn’t 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 SPNW’s 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: Arena easy on taxpayer, harder on SoDo

BY Art Thiel 06:23PM 05/16/2012

In a feat equal to a dunk by Danny DeVito, I will attempt to explain briefly the proposed arena deal, without using financier-ese or bureaucrat-ese, and in the process offer something perhaps you didn't know.

Nothing in this column is about the teams who may populate the arena. Also, nothing here about the arena's controversial location. Won't touch civic politics -- well, maybe one shot, later on. All I ask is that you hang with me: I don't want to be alone at this elevation.

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Thiel: Be careful what you say, Eric Wedge

BY Art Thiel 04:28PM 05/15/2012

After the Mariners began the season 4-4, it was written here that, other than the guy who is the agent for disgraced Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino, Eric Wedge has for the next six months the toughest job in sports.

That's because the manager of this particular roster can do little to influence game outcomes. The season will require extraordinary patience from an impatient man, managing up to a foundering ownership while managing down to under-productive players. Awwwwkward.

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Thiel: Tired Sounders fall again to Salt Lake

BY Art Thiel 10:47PM 05/12/2012

Even in soccer, where goals and are distributed with frequency nearly equal to Willy Wonka's Golden Tickets, four consecutive shutouts in a row is a highly respectable stretch of defense.

But that can't be said definitively, because a season-high gathering of 39,312 at the Clink Saturday night did not get to witness four. Zeroes stopped at three and a half. So did the Sounders' five-game winning streak.

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Seahawks draftee Irvin passes the speed test

BY Art Thiel 06:00PM 05/11/2012

Searching for meaning on the first the first day of rookies' padless football practice against air is barely more productive than looking for life on the moon from one's porch.

But one thing was plain Friday at Seahawks headquarters, even without a telescope -- the scouts weren't lying: Bruce Irvin is meteor-fast.

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Thiel: Every team profitable in 3 years, says Stern

BY Art Thiel 02:19PM 05/08/2012

In case you wonder why a smart guy like Chris Hansen would invest $290 million in a project that supports a money-losing industry like the NBA, David Stern offered over the weekend a partial explanation.

The commissioner thinks that, thanks to the new collective bargaining agreement that was signed in December after a lockout, every NBA team can be profitable by around 2014-15, about the time Hansen's proposed Seattle arena could be near completion.

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Thiel: Seager solves one position for Mariners

BY Art Thiel 06:17PM 05/06/2012

Offering conclusions based on any series with the Minnesota Twins is a dubious premise -- swimmers do not become Olympians in the bath tub, after all -- but it seems safe to say that the Chone Figgins matter, as a function of play on the field, is over.

Not only did Mariners manager Eric Wedge pull him from Friday's series opener for reasons of incompetence, third base, Figgins' primary position, is now owned by homegrown youngster Kyle Seager. Figgins' role is now reserve (f)utility.

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Thiel: Late-game play will choose Seahawks QB

BY Art Thiel 08:03PM 05/04/2012

Merely for the sake of variety, it would be intriguing to hear two quarterbacks dead-heated for the starting job throw down verbally like, say, presidential candidates.

"As president, my rival would destroy the freedoms and liberties that generations of Americans have given their lives to preserve." Countered by:

"As president, my rival would be toxic to every life form on the planet."

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Thiel: Sounders solve star-less Galaxy, 2-0

BY Art Thiel 11:03PM 05/02/2012

Normally it's the Los Angeles Galaxy that has the stars and the scores. Wednesday night, they had nada and nil.

Stars and scores? Sounders FC had both.

Eddie Johnson and Fredy Montero may lack the marquee power of David Beckham and Robbie Keane. But the Sounders' striker tandem at least had the courtesy to show up at the Clink. And the audacity to show off.

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Thiel: With Irvin, Seahawks sacked info age

BY Art Thiel 02:19PM 05/01/2012

A funny thing happened at Seahawks draft headquarters in Renton Thursday afternoon.

Nothing.

When, minutes before Roger Goodell would announce it on TV, the electronic readerboard in the media workroom flashed the Seahawks selection of "Bruce Irvin, West Virginia," a hush fell over the room measured in megatons. Even the talk radio guys in the back of the room from KJR and ESPN fell silent. Momentarily.

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Hansen, Part 2: "This arena is not a hobby"

BY Art Thiel 07:30AM 04/30/2012

Longtime Sonics fan and Seattle native Chris Hansen surprised the local sports and civic scene in February with his offer of $290 million in private capital to help fund a $500 million arena in the SoDo district. He sat down for lunch with Sportspress Northwest columnist Art Thiel Thursday for an exclusive, extensive interview.

Part One of the question-and-answer session was published Friday at Sportspress Northwest and can can be found here. In Part Two, Hansen talks about what he's looking for in partners, his "wrestling" with being the lead investor, the "under-appreciated" virtues of the proposed funding, and the arena's size. As has been his custom, he declined to answer specific questions about potential team re-locations, nor identify potential local partners.

Q. Please clear up some public confusion about the potential timing of simultaneous pursuits of re-locations from the NBA and NHL.

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