His Pitch Worked Wonders in Westwood

Last year, before John Wooden threw out the first pitch for Game 2 of the World Series at Edison Field, he was a little apprehensive about doing it.

Carl Boldt, a starting forward on the University of San Francisco teams that featured Bill Russell, recalls having breakfast with Wooden, a couple of other friends and his daughter, Nan, at VIP’s in Encino when the subject came up.

“What convinced him to do it was Nan telling him, ‘Go ahead, it will look good on your resume,’ ” Boldt said. “As if he needed to add to his resume.”

Trivia time: What former major leaguer who played mostly for the Chicago White Sox wore his birth date on his uniform?

No age limit: From David Letterman: “Happy birthday to the world’s oldest man [who] yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, turned 114 years old. Today, he was tossed to the ground by Pedro Martinez.”

How suite it is: Suite 818 of the Myles Standish Hall dormitory at Boston University used to be a hotel room where Babe Ruth usually slept when the Yankees visited Boston. The New York Daily News reports that it is now home to five female students.

“I’m praying that if I’m here and root hard enough and bring enough good Sox karma to the room that maybe this will be the year,” resident Lisa Kelly, a sophomore from Quincy, Mass., told the newspaper.

Never in L.A.: From KFWB’s Bret Lewis: “The Cub fan who kept Moises Alou from catching that foul ball in the eighth? That would have never happened in Los Angeles. He would have been gone by the seventh inning.”

Always in L.A.: A variation of Lewis’ line comes from comedy writer Jerry Perisho, who, commenting on the public transportation strike, said, “There are so many people jammed on the freeways in L.A. it looks like the seventh inning of a Dodger game.”

Bear ban: Baylor has changed a decades-old practice of having a black bear at home football games after learning crowd noise could agitate the animal.

The Associated Press reported that the decision follows a protest that began last year by members of Chicago-based Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK), who claim the bears were driven into a state of psychosis because they were kept in a mostly concrete environment.

Looking back: On this day in 1985, Jack Clark’s three-run home run with two out in the top of the ninth inning of Game 6 gave the St. Louis Cardinals a 7-5 victory over the Dodgers and the National League pennant.

Trivia answer: Carlos May, who wore No. 17 and was born May 17, 1948.

And finally: Rod Van Hook of KSPN, the Kings’ flagship radio station, explained why Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian don’t talk more about hockey on their sports talk show.

“The only ice Doug knows anything about is the kind he puts in his drinks,” Van Hook said.

Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.