Times sports department recruits 3 top reporters

There are three new starters in The Seattle Times' sports lineup, and that hasn't happened in a long time.

"It is rare that three major sports reporters come within a month or so of each other, and in this case, two are replacing 20-plus-years writers who retired," said Cathy Henkel, Times sports editor. The new starters are:

• Jerry Brewer from The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., who is joining Steve Kelley in the sports-columnist rotation. Brewer fills the spot long held by Blaine Newnham, who is mostly retired but continues to write occasional pieces.

• Geoff Baker from the Toronto Star, who is taking over for Bob Finnigan on the Mariner beat. Finnigan retired about a week ago after 25 years on the beat.

• Danny O'Neil from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, who has returned to The Times to be our NFL reporter. He replaces Les Carpenter, who went to The Washington Post last year.

Sports teams usually shake up their lineups when they are losing, but The Times' daily sports section has been in the country's top 10 for our circulation size seven years in a row. The Sunday section has been in the top 10 four of the past five years and top 20 in the fifth year, as judged by the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE).

Readers could see that quality in last week's 18-page special section on high-school football and 22-page section on college football. If you missed them, you can still check them out online at www.seattletimes.com/sports. Look for our NFL special section this Thursday.

We're fortunate to have an already strong staff and to be able to hire such talented additions as Brewer, Baker and O'Neil.

"We don't hire writers quickly, either," Henkel pointed out. "We do a national search and do a lot of checking and prodding. I probably hold the national record now for the longest search for a sports columnist — 15 months — before we found Jerry Brewer.

"We could have found a slice-and-dicer, someone who would love to take cuts to push his own name out more. We could have found someone who loves to pull witticisms out of his hat rather than just communicate with readers. We could have found someone who was so interested in pushing his own name on TV, radio, the Internet and in books that the newspaper column was almost an afterthought.

"We didn't. We found Jerry. Not even 30 yet, Jerry has already worked in two major markets — at The Philadelphia Inquirer covering the NFL, and The Orlando Sentinel, covering the NBA and writing a column.

"Then he returned to his home state of Kentucky and was the toast of the Louisville Courier-Journal. We got letters from his readers there who had never met him, but knew they were losing someone they would miss."

Brewer introduced himself in his first Times column last Sunday, and what came through is that this is a very likable young man with substance and confidence beyond his years.

He wasn't even slightly self-conscious when he spoke of wanting to make his parents and family proud. Or when he spoke of wanting to write columns with universal themes and authenticity. Then he laughed heartily, saying, "Sometimes you're going to fall short of the glory."

Brewer told me he is enthused by the spirit and quality of the sports staff. I asked him what he knows about Baker, who starts this week. "I know from my buddies on the baseball beat that he is easily in the top 10 among baseball writers," he answered.

Baker, in fact, won the top journalism award in Canada three times — two for his sports reporting, and one for his news reporting as an investigative reporter before turning to sports. He was the first Canadian to ever win an APSE award.

"In Geoff, we have found an exceptional talent, and it's not just us saying that, but U.S. Immigration as well," Henkel said. In order to get him a visa, The Times had to apply for an exception, which means we had to prove he is indeed an "exceptional talent."

We didn't have to jump through immigration hoops to bring Danny O'Neil back to The Times, but we would and could have. I couldn't be happier to have his byline back in The Times.

"This is Danny's third stint with us," Henkel said. We hired him when he was a UW senior to answer prep calls, then he went to espn.com for a couple of years before we brought him back to cover Eastside sports, which he did for three years. The past four years he covered the Sonics and the Seahawks for the P-I.

"We brought him back in July to be our NFL reporter as we've upped our game since the Seahawks have done similarly," Henkel said. "But that's not all. We've had a very busy summer."

Rick Lund, assistant sports editor for presentation and designer for more than 20 years, decided to try his hand in local-news presentation. Mark McTyre, lead sports designer, was promoted to replace Lund. Rich Boudet was hired from The News Tribune in Tacoma to do sports design.

"So it's been our most active and invigorating summer in my nearly 20 years here," Henkel said. "We have been sad to see some long-time staffers go, but at the same time, the new energy in the room is exciting."

Inside The Times appears in the Sunday Seattle Times. If you have a comment on news coverage, write to Michael R. Fancher, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111, call 206-464-3310 or send e-mail to mfancher@seattletimes.com. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists