It Wasn’t Such a Hot Number on a Chicago White Sox Jersey

The Associated Press reports that Champion, which makes sportswear, added a third factory shift to make No. 45 jerseys. Nike rushed to have No. 45 caps printed. Sports card marketers scrambled to slip No. 45 into their NBA players series.

The number that has long conjured up visions of pistols, hit-record singles and malt liquor has a new ambassador.

Michael Jordan took No. 45--his old 23 had been retired--when he returned to the Chicago Bulls. He has thus carved another potentially lucrative niche in the multibillion-dollar world of sports marketing.

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Trivia time: What three men ended their college coaching careers by winning the NCAA basketball championship?

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Replacement circus: With no star players, the Atlanta Braves hope to attract crowds to Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium this spring by offering three-piece bands, jugglers and mimes.

There will also be theme-night promotions featuring cartoon characters and a “dash for cash.”

The way things have been going this spring, some of the cartoon characters might wind up playing.

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Here we go again: Bob Glauber reports in the Sporting News that Ohio State wide receiver Joey Galloway was timed in 4.2 seconds for 40 yards in a recent workout, enhancing his draft status.

It should, since he’s now challenging for the title of world’s fastest human.

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NBA report: Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Derrick Coleman called Mailman Malone an Uncle Tom, because he’s such a sell-out weaselly wimp that he actually attends team practices!”

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League of their own: Jim Caple of the St. Paul Pioneer Press on the baseball strike: “When real unions go on strike, their members grab picket signs and protest management’s actions.

“When the baseball union strikes, the players grab the No. 8 sunscreen and protest the high cost of the back-nine at Pinehurst.”

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Early start: John McClain of the Houston Chronicle reports that Hunter McKay, 6, son of Tampa Bay General Manager Rich McKay and grandson of former Buccaneer Coach John McKay, is an avid football fan.

Hunter writes a sports column for his kindergarten class.

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About time: As the last finisher of the Iditarod sled dog race from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska, on Wednesday, rookie musher Ben Jacobson carried a red lantern across the finish line. The custom was started as a jest, when mushers joked that stragglers needed a lamp to light the way. The lantern has since become a symbol of perseverance.

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FYI: The original golf ball, called a “feathery,” was nothing more than a piece of leather stitched together and stuffed with a top hat’s volume of feathers.

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Trivia answer: John Wooden, UCLA, 1975; Al McGuire, Marquette, 1977, and Larry Brown, Kansas, 1988.

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Quotebook: Miami Heat forward John Salley, speculating on how the return of Michael Jordan will affect the love lives of Bull fans: “There’s going to be far less children born in Chicago now.”