Rebounding Economy? Not in the Motor City

Could this be the start of something big?

Could Detroit Piston President Thomas S. Wilson be a trend-smasher?

Last week, he announced Piston ticket prices for next season would be slashed by up to 45% for nearly half the 22,000 seats in the Palace at Auburn Hills.

Commented Greg Cote in the Miami Herald: “We’re not talking about a $70 ticket reduced to $68 as a quick stroke of public relations--we are talking about a rollback that might be unprecedented in major pro sports.”

Under the new prices, Piston season tickets in the lower bowl that once cost $1,799 will be $999. Last season’s $60 one-game tickets will be $45, and the $45 seats drop to $35.

Said Wilson: “We’re pricing ourselves out of a lot of people. We figured if we went the other way, let’s make it have an impact. Our attendance was dropping even when Grant Hill was here. Fans were slowly being turned off to basketball in the Detroit area.”

*

You’re so vane: One of the final steps in the $93-million renovation of Penn State’s Beaver Stadium was completed this week when workers installed a 1,500-pound copper-and-steel Nittany Lion weather vane on a pole above the southwest corner of the 106,500-seat facility.

Travis Tuck designed the sculpture, which is modeled after the limestone Nittany Lion sculpture on the Penn State campus. The vane is designed to turn so that the head will always face into the wind.

Tuck has also built weather vanes for filmmaker Steven Spielberg, former President Bill Clinton and singer James Taylor.

The cost? A mere $100,000.

*

Trivia time: What baseball oddity did Joel Youngblood achieve on this date in 1982?

*

I’ll show you: Shortly before classes began at Notre Dame in 1958, freshman football player Nick Buoniconti was summoned by his academic advisor.

He told Buoniconti that he probably wouldn’t make it at Notre Dame, either as a football player because of his size (5 feet 10, 195 pounds) or academically, because of his low SAT scores.

End of story: Buoniconti, who later became a lawyer, today will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

*

The diarist: Adam Young, rookie tight end from Dartmouth, is trying to make the New York Giants’ roster. He’s keeping a diary of his experiences for the New York Post and wrote this entry this week:

“Guys on the team say: ‘C’mon, Ivy League. You sure you went to Dartmouth? You graduate from Dartmouth?’ ”

*

Need a lift? How loyal are Jackie Stiles’ Southwest Missouri State fans?

The Portland Fire rookie, at home games, often gives Southwest fans a ride to their hotels after games. At least some Southwest fans have been at every Portland game this summer, home and on the road.

*

Add WNBA: The league’s first matchup of identical twins was a bust.

When Washington and Charlotte met recently, Charlotte’s Kelly Miller did not get off the bench and Washington’s Coco Miller was scoreless in five minutes.

At Georgia, the Millers started every game for four years.

*

Trivia answer: He began his day by driving in the winning run for the New York Mets in a day game. Afterward, he was traded to the Montreal Expos. He flew to Philadelphia and that night singled for the Expos, becoming the first player ever to get a hit for two teams in different cities on the same day.

*

And finally: The Miami Herald’s Dan LeBatard, writing about how much bigger and better the Baltimore Ravens’ defense is than that of the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers:

“Baltimore defensive tackle Tony Siragusa sprinkles the sugary equivalent of Mean Joe Greene’s 260 pounds on his cereal every morning.”