Dodgers star Kemp ‘stupid’ good

When Matt Kemp was with the 51s a couple of years ago, the team's hitting coach, Mike Easler, was in awe of the young player's potential.

"Matthew can be a Hall of Famer," Easler told the Review-Journal while Kemp was on a rehab assignment with the 51s, then the Dodgers' Triple-A affiliate.

"If he keeps his work ethic up, he'll be one of those special players."

Kemp, 24, is doing some special things.

Entering Tuesday's game at Houston, the 6-foot-3-inch, 235-pound center fielder was hitting .383 with three home runs and 14 RBIs, helping the Dodgers to an eight-game winning streak and a 10-3 record.

On Sunday, he had two homers -- including a grand slam.

Dodgers manager Joe Torre compares Kemp's stroke to those of Alex Rodriguez, Mike Piazza, Darryl Strawberry and Dale Murphy.

When Dodgers hitting coach Don Mattingly is in the batting cages with Kemp, he sometimes thinks of Bo Jackson.

"Just stupid stuff they're able to do," Mattingly says, using the word "stupid" to convey what he really meant: incredible.

• BETTING ON A.C. -- A poll of New Jersey residents conducted three weeks ago shows residents of the state favor legalizing sports betting in Atlantic City -- the nation's second-largest gambling market to Las Vegas -- by a margin of more than 2-1.

Estimates of illegal sports betting in the country range as high as $380 billion a year, according to the National Gaming Impact Study Commission.

In the poll, 63 percent support making sports betting legal at the 11 Atlantic City casinos. The poll also found similarly strong support for allowing sports betting at horse racing tracks. Residents opposed betting by telephone and Internet by a 66 percent-26 percent margin.

• IRAN HOOLIGANS -- Iranian state television says the country's new soccer coach has resigned two weeks after being appointed to the post.

The Tuesday report quoted the head of Iran's soccer federation as saying Mohammed Mayely-Kohan resigned after calling supporters of a top Iranian team "hooligans" and criticizing the team's manager for his alleged incompetence.

Hooligans in Iran?

Blasphemy.

• GREEN PACE CAR -- On Earth Day Eve -- which was Tuesday -- NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Denny Hamlin introduced and drove the Toyota Hybrid Camry, which will be the first hybrid used as a pace car for a Cup race -- the May 24 Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway near Charlotte, N.C.

Toyota spent more than a year getting the car's speed up to 100 mph, fast enough for NASCAR to approve it.

The hybrid's 187-horsepower, four-cylinder engine combines with a battery-powered electric motor to get a combined average of 33 miles per gallon.

During caution periods, the hybrid will pace up to 43 stock cars with V-8 engines producing 850 horsepower and getting about 5 miles per gallon of 98-octane, unleaded gasoline.

Earth would benefit more if one Cup car paced 43 hybrids -- but that would be boring.

COMPILED BY JEFF WOLF LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL