BUT HE DOES HAVE A BETTER BAT FOR A CATCHER THAN CLINT HURDLE

Yorvit Torrealba hit a three-run home run in the rain Sunday night to give Colorado a 4-1 win over Arizona and a commanding 3-0 advantage of the National League Championship Series. Baseball clearly doesn’t matter as much as did when I was a kid collecting sugar-stained Topps baseball cards out of wax packs, because until the Rockies-Padres playoff game to settle the wild card winner two weeks ago, I’d never heard of Yorvit Torrealba. Neither had you. And our lives were complete.

HUH? I OWN A BASEBALL TEAM?

The New York Post reported that George Steinbrenner has handed over control of the Yankees to his sons, Uday and Qusay. No, I’m kidding. Their names are Hank and Hal, supposedly. Other than being about eight years overdue, this move seems perfectly timed to absolve George’s conscience of any responsibility for the impending non-renewal of manager Joe Torre.

DEAD-END JOB

Michelle Wie’s agent, Greg Nared, has resigned after approximately a year on the job. “I’m very grateful to the William Morris Agency for the opportunity to work with world-class athletes,” Nared wrote in an e-mail to the Associated Press. Which would explain why he’s leaving Wie.

SECOND PLACE IS THE FIRST NON-JUICER

Spain’s Oscar Pereiro finally received the yellow champion’s jersey from the 2006 Tour de France on Monday. Spaniards danced in the streets almost as recklessly as some sprinter from Turks & Caicos will exult when she receives one of Marion Jones’ gold medals from the 2004 Olympics after the second through seventh-place finishers admit they were jacked up on chemicals, too.

THROWING IT ALL AWAY

Brett Favre became the NFL’s all-interception king when the Packers QB threw a pick to the Redskins’ Sean Taylor in the third quarter Sunday. We would have to run that news in a 108-point headline every day for the next 80 years to give that footnote equal time to the national media’s celebration of Favre’s career touchdown record. But since almost nobody else felt compelled to mention it at all, consider this a public service.

INSPIRING COMMITMENT

Matt Carufel, recently benched as Notre Dame’s starting right guard after three starts, has left the team and withdrawn from the school. He’s the fourth sophomore to walk out on the Fighting Irish this season. And you wonder why they’re 1-6.

RIGHT UP THERE WITH TIM RAINES AND RAZOR SHINES IN THE SAME LINEUP

Both the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears had a running back named Adrian Peterson in Sunday’s game at Soldier Field. The Vikings’ version rushed for 224 yards and 3 touchdowns. Adrian Peterson is not exactly Joe Smith, Jim Jones or God Shammgod in the pantheon of common sports names, so the coincidence is worth nothing. Although it is safe to predict that there will never be a World Series with two catchers named Yorvit Torrealba.