And There’s No Need to Rotate After 7,500 Miles

It might not be safe to drive a Ford Explorer on Firestone tires--but the tires have been deemed good enough for the Detroit Lions to play on.

Turns out the artificial turf in the Lions’ new stadium will be made partly from rubber derived from reclaimed Firestone tires.

(Please, no jokes about the 2-14 Lions going from pushovers to roll-overs.)

The Lions are owned by William Clay Ford Sr., the father of the auto maker’s chief executive, William Clay Ford Jr., noted for his commitment to reducing environmental impact. (Reportedly, none of the millions of Firestone tires recalled and collected by Ford have been sent to landfills.)

Ford Field’s “retread” playing surface will be produced by FieldTurf, the same company that produced the artificial turf for the New England Patriots’ practice field, Ward’s Auto World magazine reported in a story picked up by the Detroit Free Press.

By the way, not just any discarded tire is good enough to be frozen, reduced to powder and mixed with silica sand to help produce FieldTurf’s synthetic grass.

Reportedly, only 20% of the worn and discarded tires considered met the company’s standards.

Headline alert: Even automobile industry reporters see the potential here. From Eric Mayne of Ward’s Auto World: “Detroit Ends Losing Skid; Lions Win in Blowout.”

Trivia time: Nine of the first 20 tournaments on the PGA Tour this season have been won by golfers from countries other than the U.S. What seven countries have produced winners? Extra credit for listing the nine international players who have won tournaments.

Uniform included: Want to pitch to Alex Rodriguez?

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports the Texas Rangers need left-handers to throw batting practice before home games.

“We’re looking for left-handers who can throw strikes, throw straight and not hit anybody,” bullpen catcher Nate Lasseter said.

Yeah, the Rangers and 29 other teams....

No skinning this Shinn: Chris Shinn, one of Charlotte Hornet owner George Shinn’s three children, attended one of the final games in Charlotte before the move to New Orleans.

Though close to his father, he brought home 10 T-shirts with a nasty reference to Shinn and minority owner Ray Wooldridge, both reviled in Charlotte.

“Hey, that T-shirt is a collector’s item,” Chris Shinn, 27, a musician who lives in Los Angeles, told the Charlotte Observer. “You’ve got to know my family to understand why so many of them will want one.”

Celtic spelling lesson: In light of that 66-64 game during Boston’s playoff series against Detroit, Randy Hill of Foxsports.com called the Celtic coach “Jim ‘Brien.”

“His team misplaced the O.”

The Piston performance also inspired Hill to update Detroit’s nickname--to “The Mortar City.”

Trivia answer: Spain (Sergio Garcia, Jose Maria Olazabal), Canada (Ian Leggatt), South Africa (Ernie Els, Retief Goosen), New Zealand (Craig Perks), Fiji (Vijay Singh), South Korea (K.J. Choi) and Japan (Shigeki Maruyama).

And finally: From Chris Shinn, son of the Hornet owner:

“You know that TV show ‘The Osbournes?’ It reminds me a lot of our family.”