A Bachelor Party You Can Tell Wife About

Rick Odekirk, 44, and his brother Jeff, 37, were avid USC fans growing up in Glendale. Both attended USC, and Rick was a pitcher on the baseball team.

With Jeff getting married this weekend, Rick wanted to do something special instead of holding a traditional bachelor party. So he rented the Coliseum field for $1,300, decorated the USC locker room and arranged for Charles White, Jeff’s favorite Trojan, and former Dodger Bill Russell, Jeff’s favorite baseball player, to show up for a gathering last Saturday.

Craig Fertig and a few other former Trojans were also there. “Unbelievable” is how Jeff described the surprise affair.

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Trivia time: Who holds the Laker record for free-throw percentage in a season?

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Familiar story: Mark Kreidler of the Sacramento Bee, commenting on the Utah Jazz, which was routed by the Kings during the regular season but has evened their playoff series at 1-1: “Sacramento has so much in its lineup, so much along its bench, that it’s always shocking to see the Kings picked apart by the sheer force of experience.

“But that’s what this series is about so far, about [John] Stockton and [Karl] Malone commanding the stage at all the precisely important moments.”

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The weatherman: After a recent unseasonably warm spell in New York, Met catcher Mike Piazza pondered the possibility that it was caused by changes in the earth’s atmosphere.

“I’m not buying the whole global-warming theory,” he told the Newark Star-Ledger. “Back in the Industrial Revolution, there were no limits on pollution and no catalytic converters and things like that. Probably the level of pollution was higher back in the 1900s.”

Whatever you say, Mike.

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Stylish recruiting: Indianapolis Colt owner Jim Irsay is asking his neighbors for permission to use his 10-seat, twin-engine helicopter to and from his home in Carmel, Ind., to entertain--and impress--free agents. Neighbors have complained about the noise from the helicopter, and Carmel officials last year notified Irsay he would need a zoning approval. The board put off a decision until next month.

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Mr. Playmaker: Shaun Powell of Newsday, commenting on the skill of New Jersey Net playmaker Jason Kidd: “Kidd is probably one of only seven or eight players who’s truly worth paying the going rate for tickets, regular season or playoffs.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1976, Chicago Cub center fielder Rick Monday snatched an American flag away from two protesters who were trying to set it on fire in left field at Dodger Stadium.

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Trivia answer: Magic Johnson, .911 in 1988-89. The NBA record is .958 by Calvin Murphy of Houston in 1980-81.

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And finally: From Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle: “The good news for Raider fans is that the team drafted well this year, made intelligent picks, by the book, didn’t take wild fliers, didn’t throw down the rent money on hard eight.

“So where was Al?

“Just kidding. As always, the Raiders’ war room was a phone booth, with Al Davis inside making all the calls, and his coaching staff and advisors hanging around outside, lagging coins at cracks in the sidewalk.

“Mr. Davis still calls the shots.”