Tuesday's first pitch

Leading Off
We admit it, we were wrong about the firing of Clint Hurdle. We didn't think it would help the Rockies at all. Instead it has sparked a run that could push the Dodgers for a playoff berth.
That's right, the Dodgers, who seemed to have a birthright on the playoffs, are just three wins ahead of the Rockies.
Denver got an exciting win to beat the Giants on Monday.
The one division that looked like a blowout is now going to be the best race of the season.

Regional Roundup
Ryan Howard cannot be stopped. Some starters couldn't get past the sixth.

• Chris Tillman struggled after a strong start. Adam Jones might miss the Twins series. Daily Record Editor James McClure has a post about Brooks Robinson's returns to the minor leagues after he left York.


• Ryan Howard roughed up Bobby Parnell. Brett Myers had another good minor league outing. Jimmy Watch: Pinch hit: 0-for-1


• Collin Balestar got knocked around after a decent start.


• Ross Ohlendorf is blossoming. He's on track to be traded to the Twins in April.

• The First Night of the new Yankee Dynasty. Could be.


• Johan Santana is scratched from his next start. Sorry Mets fans, the season's long gone.


• This is the team with the best record since the All-Star break.


• Profiling The Behemoth, Jonathan Broxton.


• The Red Sox offense continues to impress. It's pitching was better against the White Sox than it was against the Yankees.

• The Hot Stone League is one of the best baseball blogs out there. Here's a post about Larry Stone's favorite baseball books. I'm going to have my own list soon. But he and I agree on several of these.

1922 -- In one of the wildest games ever played, the Cubs beat the Phillies 26-23. The Cubs led 25-6 in the fourth inning, but held on as the game ended with the Phillies leaving the bases loaded.

1985 -- New York's Dwight Gooden became the youngest pitcher ever to win 20 games with a 9-3 triumph over the San Diego Padres. Gooden at age 20 years, nine months, and nine days was one month younger that Bob Feller who won 20 games in 1939.

The Closer We found a Baseball Tonight column on ESPN.com that discussed realignment. Now it wasn't serious, at least we don't think it was. But it brought up contracting two teams. Now let's get something straight. In 1950, there were 16 major league teams and there were 152,271,417 Americans. Since almost every player was born in the U.S., integration was just three years into existence and players of Asian and Latin American decent were not on rosters, all of those players were taken from a very small, but diluted, talent pool. Today, there is more than 300 million Americans, players are taken from every nationality, so there is a much wider talent pool to chose from. However, while the country has doubled in size and the pool has ballooned, there are just 16 new teams. That's rediculous. If anything, there should be more team. Put teams in China and Japan, Latin America, and in growing metropolises here in the good ole' U.S. of A. Contraction is the worst possible idea.