It might be time for me to update my Yankees wardrobe — for games I usually go with the old-time 1903-era New York Highlanders cap and a home or away jersey over a Yanks or plain tee, at least during the warmer months.  While I don’t usually stray from the traditional (no multi-colored caps or inane “Got Rings?” t-shirts), these new offerings from Tommy Bahama combine the classic Yankees design with an updated look.

According to the Tommy Bahama news item, they will only be offering eight teams — the Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, Mariners, Angels, Dodgers, Phillies and Cardinals. I’m not sure how the M’s got in there over, say, the Mets, though I suspect the Ichiro effect on the Asian market might have something to do with it.

In any case, the company says that the Yankees and Red Sox shirts will be rolled out first, in time for their season opener on April 4.

Last month I attended a demonstration session for a new baseball analytics tool from Bloomberg which is based on the company’s analysis and projection models for stocks, bonds and all things financial.

Now available to all fans, the Bloomberg folks opened the site to media and bloggers to kind of kick the tires, and there’s a lot to go through, but my first impressions are quite good.

The tools remind me a little of my cell phone or my computer:  there are so many features that I might never even get to.  But if that happens, it won’t be for lack of trying.  So far, I’ve been digging through the player ratings and scouting, and I can see how this will be even more valuable once spring games have begun and teams have taken shape. 

The focus here is clearly on fantasy baseball, though I think the avid baseball fan who doesn’t play fantasy will also find a lot to like.

There’s a feature that I like called “Demand vs. Scarcity,” as it’s one of the most important elements in a fantasy draft.  For each position, a graph charts where each player lands in value, making it easy to determine the cut-off point for top players at that spot.  The first base chart, for example, shows that there are about 15 players at four or five stars, with four — Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard, Prince Fielder and Mark Teixeira in a cluster above the rest.  After another group of eight or so, there’s a little drop off, then a huge fall off after the top 15.  The shortstops, however, are much more elite; after the top six, there isn’t much difference betweent he rest.  This position analysis is helpful in maximizing the value of each pick.

News tickers and updated stats will be helpful during the season to maintain lineups and look for MLB roster changes that might necessitate an add/drop.

Like the rest of the auto industry, Chrysler has plenty of woes.  Apparently one of them is copyright infringement by a high school nicknamed the “Rams.”

Lake Mary (Fla.) High may bill itself as “Where bright futures are ignited,” but the school’s use of a ram logo that is a cut-and-paste of the Dodge logo instead ignited a phone call from Chrysler’s corporate licensing division.

Now there are lots of school teams nicknamed the Rams, and only so many different depictions of the creature available to make an attractive logo.  My alma mater, Fordham, has probably the worst, a morbidly obese ram trying in vain to leap over the school name, not unlike what many other schools have done.  The previous Ram logo, in effect for most of the 2000s, looked suspiciously like the Dodge Ram, which may have necessitated the change.

I understand that Chrysler needs to protect its marks, and that the LMHS logo is a complete ripoff, minus the shield.  But I think the company’s TARP-supported resources could be put to better use.

Like making Fordham pick a slimmer ram…

The Internet and the Olympics are a perfect match.  Real-time coverage, particularly when the Games took place in such far-away time zones as Sydney, Beijing and Nagano, was a huge boon to sports sites like ESPN.com and CBS SportsLine, and “official” sites quickly improved in quality and depth of features.

Though on a smaller scale than in 2008, NBCOlympics.com has plenty of info, features, video and photos to keep even the most ardent Olympics fan busy.  And for West Coast TV viewers, who are getting some of the action on tape delay, the real-time results are a must.

One cool feature is a series of photomosaics on the photos page, which combine hundreds of individual photographs to make larger images.  I like how you can drill down to view the tile photos, most of which have information about the image.

The first nine photomosaics, which feature five sports (snowboarding, figure skating, bobsled, alpine skiing, speed skating) and four more generic images, are made from previous Olympic photos.  The final three will be created using 2010 Vancouver Games stills.

Mosaic Legends, the group that put the photomosaics together, have mostly done images of musicians like Elton John, Eric Clapton and Bono, but have announced that it will be releasing a Muhammad Ali soon as part of its push into sports.

Speedskating has traditionally provided many of the most exciting competition and interesting storylines of the Winter Olympics.  This year, Apolo Anton Ohno, J.R. Celski and Shani Davis have been among the most discussed athletes at the Games so far.

Looking to capitalize on that, U.S. Speedskating has launched a social media campaign, “to connect with fans, capitalize on global excitement about the games and build on publicity generated by the recent high-profile sponsorship of comedian Stephen Colbert and The Colbert Nation.”

“US Speedskating is taking a leadership position by embracing opportunities to connect with fans on social networks,” said Libby Issendorf, a social media strategist with the Flint Group, a Midwest-based communications agency that has been working with the team since early January to create and implement the campaign. “This is really the first winter Olympics held since social media has been so widely adopted,” she added. “Individual athletes have typically used these media more extensively than entire teams.”

US Speedskating is using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to tell stories, showcase athletes, promote the sport and grow and engage its online fan base.

Links to follow US Speedskating online include:

Follow US Speedskating:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/usspeedskating
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/USSpeedskating
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/usspeedskating

If you like cranberries and the delicious juices and sauces they make (like I do) and you like the Winter Olympics (me, too!), you will enjoy this fun tribute in Richmond, British Columbia, one of the host cities for the 2010 Games.

If you want to get bogged down with details, you will note that thirteen million floating cranberries, weighing about 13,600 kilograms (30,000 pounds), have been formed into an image of the Canadian Olympic Committee’s iconic logo which features a maple leaf, torch and the Olympic rings.  The tribute is 73 metres long by 58 metres wide (240 by 190 feet) or more than 4,200 square metres (46,000 square feet) in total area. It will remain on display throughout the 2010 Games.

Weather conditions in the Pacific Northwest that have caused some havoc as the Games begin also affected the placement of the tribute, which was originally supposed to be displayed in front of the Richmond Olympic Oval.  Organizers cited “river currents and concern for crew safety” as reasons for the relocation.

“We have a unique opportunity as an Olympic Venue City to showcase Richmond’s culture, resources and ingenuity, said Mayor Malcolm Brodie in a statement. “The combination of the installation at Brighouse Park and the harvest display in City Hall’s channel gardens is an amazing opportunity to celebrate our leading agricultural crop.”

Click here and here for more info on the design and more photos and videos of the design.

Sometimes when I’m away from my Sirius XM radio and can’t listen to XM Home Plate, I’ll listen in to WFAN’s Mike Francesa to get his take on some of the day’s sports news.  As the standard-bearer for sports talk show hosts — and quite self-aware of that position — Francesa has a loyal following, and his strong position comes from having strong opinions.

Not always based entirely on facts, mind you, but strong opinions nonetheless.

Today, I listened to Francesa first dismiss the Winter Olympics as uninteresting to him, which is fine, he’s entitled to his thoughts, but in doing so indicated that no one else is really interested in them as well.  Later, a caller disputed that, bringing up snowboarding as a popular and growing sport.  Francesa replied, essentially, that no one cares about snowboarding.

Francesa is both right and wrong.  A 55-year-old sports talk show host who has made his living mostly talking about football, baseball and basketball doesn’t care.  A majority of his listeners, who also mostly follow those sports, don’t care.

But their sons and daughters, they care.  There’s an entire generation — and another one right behind it — who are more interested in snowboarding, mixed martial arts, and other “action” sports that Francesa pooh-poohs with a huff.

Discussion on sports radio shows go where the listeners and advertisers go.  If more listeners called in and talked about those sports more, maybe the hosts would have to take notice.

But to Francesa, nothing exists outside of the “big three.”  And if you’ve ever listened to him, nothing ever will.  But it doesn’t mean that “no one cares,” and I’d be interested to see how sports talk radio evolves over the next few years.

Our friends at the Census Bureau have compiled a collection of facts examining the demographics of Super Bowl host city Miami, as well as the cities represented by the contenders, in this year’s edition of our nation’s most celebrated sporting event.

With the mail-out of 2010 Census questionnaires slightly more than a month away, the Census Bureau will run three ads promoting census awareness during the Super Bowl telecast - two during the pregame show and one during the third quarter.

The Bureau is also doing a Road Tour to increase awareness of the upcoming count.

New Orleans (Saints)

Unless otherwise indicated, the data come from the 2008 American Community Survey.

55th

Where New Orleans ranked on the list of the nation’s most populous cities. The estimated population of New Orleans on July 1, 2008, was 336,644. New Orleans’ population climbed by 48,531 from July 1, 2007, to July 1, 2008.

Source: Population estimates <http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/SUB-EST2008.html>

25%

Percentage of New Orleans residents 25 and older who had a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2008; 82 percent had at least graduated from high school. The respective national figures were

28 percent and 85 percent.

23 minutes

Average amount of time it took New Orleans residents to get to work. Sixty-seven percent of the city’s workers drove to work alone, 13 percent carpooled, and 7 percent took public transportation. Nationally, it took workers an average of 26 minutes to get to work.

9%

Percentage of New Orleans residents 5 and older who spoke a language other than English at home. The national average was 20 percent. (The figure for New Orleans is not significantly different from that for Indianapolis.)

$37,751

Median household income for New Orleans. The national median was $52,029.

$194,300

Median home value of owner-occupied homes in New Orleans, not significantly different from the national median of $197,600.

Indianapolis (Colts)

Unless otherwise indicated, the data come from the 2008 American Community Survey.

14th

Where Indianapolis ranked on the list of the nation’s most populous cities. The estimated population of Indianapolis on July 1, 2008, was 798,382. Indianapolis gained 3,517 people from July 1, 2007, to July 1, 2008.

Source: Population estimates <http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/SUB-EST2008.html>

28%

Percentage of Indianapolis residents 25 and older who had a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2008; 85 percent had at least graduated from high school. The respective national figures were 28 percent and 85 percent.

23 minutes

Average amount of time it took Indianapolis residents to get to work. Eighty-two percent of the city’s workers drove to work alone, 10 percent carpooled and 2 percent took public transportation. Nationally, it took workers an average of 26 minutes to get to work.

10%

Percentage of Indianapolis residents 5 and older who spoke a language other than English at home. The national average was 20 percent. (The figure for Indianapolis is not significantly different from that for New Orleans.)

$43,652

Median household income for Indianapolis. The national median was $52,029.

$125,500

Median home value of owner-occupied homes in Indianapolis. The national median was $197,600.

Miami (host city)

Unless otherwise indicated, the data come from the 2008 American Community Survey.

43rd

Where Miami ranked on the list of the nation’s most populous cities. The estimated population of Miami on July 1, 2008, was 413,201. Miami gained 6,317 people from July 1, 2007, to July 1, 2008. The Super Bowl actually will be played in suburban Miami Gardens, Fla., which had a July 1, 2008, population of 109,346.

Source: Population estimates <http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/SUB-EST2008.html>

25%

Percentage of Miami residents 25 and older who had a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2008; 67 percent had at least graduated from high school. The respective national figures were 28 percent and 85 percent.

27 minutes

Average amount of time it took Miami residents to get to work. Seventy percent of the city’s workers drove to work alone, 9 percent carpooled, and 12 percent took public transportation. Nationally, it took workers an average of 26 minutes to get to work.

77%

Percentage of Miami residents 5 and older who spoke a language other than English at home. The national average was 20 percent.

$28,333

Median household income for Miami. The national median was $52,029.

$313,300

Median home value of owner-occupied homes in Miami. The national median was $197,600.

I heard they’re playing a football game this weekend in Miami.

But here’s another treat for fans who are in South Florida, tomorrow through Saturday… a mini-film festival at South Beach featuring three films - The U, ESPN’s all-time highest rated documentary; Invincible, the Vince Papale story starring Mark Wahlberg; and Faded Glory, a documentary of long-time friends who return to the baseball field after nearly 20 years.

I’ve seen the first two and they are excellent… Definitely interested in seeing “Faded Glory,” though I’ll have to dig around for it, since it’s not listed on Netflix.

More details are here… There’s also a trailer of a feature film by former Univ. of Miami running back Najeh Davenport (time to get past the hamper jokes…) about Five Star running backs at the U.

Oh, and for good measure, they’ve added a Sports Film Model Search, in case football and movies aren’t “guy” enough.  No word on what they are searching for, but it should fit in nicely at South Beach.

I love this story about USC basketball student manager Stan Holt, who got a technical foul in a game at Oregon on Saturday and was subsequently fired.

Actually, love is the wrong word.  More like ‘“feel like bad memories have been dredged from a quarter century ago.”  But, for these purposes, love will do.

Well, I don’t love that the kid lost his job, but I can empathize — well, almost — with how he must have felt when the referee issued the team bench the ‘T’ on his behalf.

You see, this almost happened to me.  In high school.

I was the scorekeeper, manager, sometime public address announcer and other assorted duty-guy for the North Rockland (N.Y.) H.S. hoops team in the mid-80’s.  Let’s just say that I had a little more passion and a little less self-control in those days, and was not above making my displeasure with officials known, with not-so-subtle eye rolls, somewhat dramatic gestures and even verbal questioning being my preferred methods.

I remember once disagreeing with a non-call on what I was sure was a goaltend by the opposing team, I think it was at Mount Vernon, a traditional New York power, a team we normally bowed to by 30 points but somehow were staying close with.  Details are hazy on the exact situation, but the feeling in the pit of my stomach is quite clear when the referee came storming over to the scorers table, pounded his fist on my scorebook and said, “You, score the game!”

I was pretty sure that he was going to ‘T’ me up, which would have made for a nice story 25 years later but would not have gone over so well with the coach, I’m confident.  There were a couple of smaller incidents but nothing as nearly horrifying as that one.

I’m sure Stan Holt had that same feeling, just as the official was heading to the table, that I had back then.

Thanks for the memories, Stan…