Image by Keith Allison via Flickr
It took him awhile, but Alex Rodriguez finally belted the 600th home run of his fine career earlier today in New York versus the Toronto Blue Jays. A-Rod had not homered since July 22nd, and the milestone blast ended a 9-for-46 slump. I am sure the homer lifted a King Kong-sized monkey off of his back. As he pursued the mark, every at-bat of his was aired live by ESPN; each plate appearance that I saw (and there were many) was painful. Rodriguez never seemed comfortable and with each ground out or third strike you could see the frustration in his body language. That all changed today on a 2-0 pitch from Shaun Marcum that caught too much of the plate. A-Rod drove it deep to right center field and gave the Yanks an early 2-0 lead.
Hours later I visited ESPN.com and saw articles and comments from writers, analysts, and fans trying to put the historic milestone into perspective. Every article and snippet made some mention of steroids and tainted records. The lead article even went so far as to imply that the day would have been more special had A-Rod been clean. And perhaps it might have. But I think there was too much focus on PEDs and A-Rod's past.
Let's remember that only seven players in the history of Major League Baseball have reached the 600 home run mark. Seven. That's not even enough players to fill in a lineup card. That's less than 0.1% of players in the history of the sport. And he did it faster than any of the other six players (35 years, 8 days old).
I doubt you will find many A-Rod fans outside of New York. I consider myself a fan of his, but it pains me to say that after he spurned my Seattle Mariners for the biggest payday in sports history. But personal feelings and moral issues aside, how can you not appreciate the achievement? 600 is 600. Mark McGwire, as juiced up as he was, couldn't reach that mark (583). It isn't easy, clean or unclean. So let's put the steroid issue aside (until his Hall of Fame date) and enjoy the spectacle. Congrats, A-Rod.
BOOM! I like the Big Mac reference. Even if he never admitted to using PED's there would always have been speculation. Who knows maybe as much as 200 homers were hit against pitchers on the PED's.
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