Three unconnected stories — Lance Armstrong, the Seattle Times and the Seattle Mariners — collided in a week of accountability avoidance.
Author: Art Thiel
Art Thiel
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.
Coach Pete Carroll’s nemesis, Jim Harbaugh, thwarted him again with a second-half wrinkle that made a difference in the 49ers’ 13-6 win Thursday night in San Francisco.
Seahawks owner Paul Allen made over the Seahawks organization late in 2009, passing on rehiring Mike Holmgren. The decision is looking good, and could be great by Thursday.
Given even an optimistic timetable for the arena project, including the legal challenge, Chris Hansen discussed publicly for the first time the possibility of waiting for NBA expansion.
As expected, the city and county councils Monday approved the amended deal for Chris Hansen’s SoDo arena, but an attorney preparing to file suit calls it a farce and a sham.
In the battle of No. 1 offense vs. No. 1 defense, the Seahawks stoppers prevailed, barely — thanks to QB Russell Wilson coming of age in the sixth game of his rookie year.
The Huskies defense held USC to 138 yards in the second half, but a winnable game against the 11th-ranked Trojans was lost 24-14 when the Washington fumbled the details.
Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln says the revised MOU is good, but the the SoDo location is still bad. But if that’s where the study says it should go, the Mariners will be “good citizens.”
Sportspress Northwest sat down this week with Howard Lincoln, CEO of the Mariners, and Bart Waldman, the club’s legal counsel, to ask questions about the club’s objections to Chris Hansen’s proposed basketball/hockey arena that abuts the team’s parking garage in SoDo. The city and county councils are expected to vote to approve Monday a memorandum
Seahawks Pete Carroll was fired by New England in 1999, which embarrassed him and led to his re-invention. Sunday is the first chance to pay regards to the Pats for the favor.