Rodriguez gets his milestone HR

[G-Fafif]

Ian O'Connor tweets: Derek Jeter's 4 for 4 is just a little this-is-still-my-house reminder to A-Rod on the day of No. 600 #yankees Amazing! O'Connor's Jeterlust is truly frightening.

O'Connor jealously protects Jeter's turf by downgrading A-Rod's accomplishments.

Of course, Rodriguez is the one who put Rodriguez on trial in a case that never ends. Last summer, when I asked Derek Jeter why he never went the boli route, he talked of the lessons he learned from a father who worked as a drug and alcohol abuse counselor. Jeter mentioned two other factors in his decision to play it clean: the potential side effects of steroid use, and the lethal hit of disclosure on a user's public image. "Eventually," Jeter said, "I think you're making a deal with the devil." Rodriguez's Faustian bargain came with the heaviest price. A-Rod was the only active baseball player to make Forbes' top 10 list of most disliked sports figures; Jeter was named baseball's most marketable player in a SportsBusiness Daily survey, and was the only baseball player named in the most recent Harris Interactive poll ranking America's favorite sports stars (Jeter finished third overall). A-Rod is free to add to his r�sum� and trophy case, and to attempt to become the first player to hit 800 home runs. But if the celebration appears muted, well, Rodriguez party-pooped his own bash. Too bad for the slugger. He could've touched them all.

I get the sense O'Connor would like to touch 'em all, too -- all that are on Jeter.

[Frayed Knot]

Checking out the 500-club for the first time in a long while: - 25 members now. When I first learned it there were four Four? That surprises me. I guess you're more than a couple of years older than me. I just looked it up, and the fifth player to hit his 500th home run was Willie Mays, on 09/13/1965. (The first four were Ruth, Foxx, Ott, and Williams.) By the time that I first started paying attention, in 1971, the list was up to nine, with the additions of Mantle, Mathews, Aaron, and Banks. During the 1971 season, Frank Robinson and Harmon Killebrew hit their 500ths, but I have no memory of being aware of it.

I was a baseball nerd at a very young age.
Not that I have a specific memory of Mays hitting his 500th, although I do remember when Denny McLain served up - and we do mean served up - #535 to Mantle so he'd pass Foxx.

I also would have had trouble pegging the order of many of those guys, a thought which sent me into some research.
So, in order of HR #500

NAME	500th	TOTAL
RUTH	Aug 11, 1929	714
FOXX	Sep 24, 1940	534
OTT	Aug 1, 1945	511
WILLIAMS	Jun 17, 1960	521
MAYS	Sep 13, 1965	660
MANTLE	May 14, 1967	536
MATHEWS	Jun 14, 1967	521
AARON	Jul 14, 1968	755
BANKS	May 12, 1970	512
KILLEBREW	Aug 10, 1971	573
ROBINSON	Sep 13, 1971	586
McCOVEY	Jun 30, 1978	521
JACKSON	Sep 17, 1984	563
SCHMIDT	Apr 18, 1987	548
MURRAY	Sep 6, 1996	504
McGWIRE	Aug 5, 1999	583
BONDS	Apr 17, 2001	762
SOSA	Apr 4, 2003	609
PALMIERO	May 11, 2003	569
GRIFFEY	Jun 20, 2004	630
THOMAS	Jun 28, 2007	521
RODRIGUEZ	Aug 4, 2007	600
THOME	Sep 16, 2007	577
RAMIREZ	May 31, 2008	554
SHEFFIELD	Apr 17, 2009	509

Huge 15 year gap between Ott & Williams. Biggest one since was the nearly 10 years after Schmidt and before Murray.
Been a year and a half since the last new inductee and looks like it'll be at least a 4 year gap until the next one.

[Vic Sage]

metsguyinmichigan wrote: my brother directed and edited a sports video about the 500 home run club in 1988, hosted by Bob Costas and Mickey Mantle. http://www.amazon.com/500-Home-Run-Club-VHS/dp/6301683005/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1280945525&sr=1-1-fkmr0 At the time he made the documentary, there were only 14 guys who had done it. Hey, I have that! Sweet.

The documentary goes through Schmidt in 1987. Eddie Murray made it obsolete in 1996.

The last 10 guys in the club all played through the "steroid era" (arguably Murray did, too, though its unknowable at this point). Which, if any, do we think did it clean? who goes into the HOF, and who doesn't?

[MFS62]

I posted Jeter's comment about A-Rod's accomplishment in the "Quotes of 2010" thread.

Later

[metirish]

Oh right , it's all about team and not me......no matter how hard he tries he still comes across as a phony.

A-Rod does it! New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez joins 600 home run club in 5-1 win over Jays

BY Mark Feinsand
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Originally Published:Wednesday, August 4th 2010, 1:27 PM
Updated: Wednesday, August 4th 2010, 3:20 PM

When Alex Rodriguez hit his 500th home run, he felt the euphoria of a personal milestone that virtually guaranteed his entry into the Hall of Fame. Exactly three years later to the day, with his reputation sullied by the stain of steroids and his admittance to Cooperstown no longer a guarantee, A-Rod was jubilant as he reached the 600-home run plateau. But his elation, he said, was nothing compared to what he felt last November when he and his teammates celebrated the World Series title on the same field. "For me, the perspective of hitting 600 home runs, it feels really good," Rodriguez said. "But when you win a World Series - which is what I worked my whole life for - no personal achievement can compare to celebrating on the mound and being the last team standing." A-Rod ended a 13-day pursuit with his first-inning swing against Toronto's Shaun Marcum, drilling a 2-0 pitch over the center-field wall into the netting that protects Monument Park. A security guard retrieved the ball and returned it to A-Rod, who rewarded him with an autographed bat. After he crossed the plate, Rodriguez hugged Derek Jeter, who scored in front of him, then met his teammates in front of the dugout to receive their congratulations. "Everyone was so excited," Nick Swisher said. "We've been waiting on this for a while now and to finally get it done especially here at home, and the way that it happened - I mean, a home run to center field in this ballpark, man, you gotta be a big man to get up and hit it out of there. It was a great day." The Yankee Stadium crowd of 47,659 gave him a lengthy standing ovation before he came back out for a curtain call. "I felt bad for them," Rodriguez said. "I had them waiting a long, long time." As thrilled as Rodriguez was, he said he was happier the homer helped the Yankees end a three-game slide, as the Bombers salvaged the final game of their series against the Blue Jays with a 5-1 victory. "Many years from today, I'll be able to reflect a lot better," Rodriguez said. "Today, the focus was that we needed a win. It was good to do it in a winning fashion." Rodriguez, who turned 35 on July 27, is the youngest player to reach 600 homers. Babe Ruth - the only other player to hit No. 600 in a Yankees uniform - had held that distinction at 36 years, 196 days. Rodriguez has hit 255 of his homers with the Yankees, hitting 189 with the Mariners and 156 with the Rangers. No. 600 snapped a 46-at-bat homer drought for A-Rod, who also entered the game in an 0-for-17 funk. "There's no question I was pressing, because I wanted to get it out of the way to get back to playing good, small team baseball," he said. "It really felt good and it was a relief to put it past me and start focusing on good baseball." A-Rod becomes the seventh member of the 600 club, joining Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Ruth, Willie Mays, Ken Griffey Jr. and Sammy Sosa. A-Rod, Bonds and Sosa have all been embroiled in the steroids scandal in some fashion, and while some will surely look at Rodriguez's latest milestone with a critical eye, he insists he continues to look forward rather than to his sordid past. "I said at that press conference that there are certain things I would love to go back and change," Rodriguez said, referring to the Tampa session in February of 2009 in which he discussed his use of performance-enhancing drugs. "...I knew with the green in front of me, that I would have an opportunity to rewrite some of the chapters in my life and in my career, to try and do things right." Rodriguez is now 10 home runs away from moving past Sosa for sole possession of sixth place on the all-time list. He will collect a $6 million bonus when he ties Mays and pocket an additional $6 million each time he ties Aaron, Ruth and Bonds, then a final $6 million if and when he becomes the all-time home run king. "That's something that we can revisit in two or three years and we'll see where we're at," Rodriguez said. "The journey is what's fun and playing for a team like that, with my teammates, I'm just in a good place." Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2010/08/04/2010-08-04_arod_finally_joins_exclusive_600_home_run_club.html?page=1#ixzz0vkPeSPUR

[Guest Edgy DC]

Those are some amazing bonus clauses. Yesterday's homer was worth as much as Steve Austin!

[MFS62]

Edgy DC wrote: Those are some amazing bonus clauses. Yesterday's homer was worth as much as Steve Austin!

That's why he listened when he heard someone say "We can make you stronger".

Later

[Frayed Knot]

The thing about those O'Connor comments above is that, while he's right about what ARod and others have done as far as their reputation goes and about the big scarlet 'S' being brought up and dampening the celebration every time a milestone gets passed, he also continuing the bad reporting that helped the scandal to go on as long as it did. Years after missing a virtual epidemic in the sport he and many of his contemporary journos cover and being fooled for so long by players they simply assumed to be clean, they continue to treat certain players as their go-to exemplars of cleanliness based on nothing more than the absence of their names on some incomplete & old report combined with a vague likability factor.
I mean we in NY have come to expect this treatment of Jeter but, just in the last few days, I've heard others cite the likes of Frank Thomas, Albert Pujols, Ken Griffey as members of their 'known to be clean' HR leaders list. Yeah OK, if you say so.

[MFS62]

Looking at that list above reminded me of a gamecast I heard about a week ago. IIRC it was the ESPN radio game of the week. The guys in the booth (couldn't recognize the voices) mentioned Braves sluggers in the past, going back to the 60's. They talked about it for about 5 minutes and nobody mentioned Eddie Matthews.
Shame.
He was goooooooood.

Later

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Frayed Knot wrote: The thing about those O'Connor comments above is that, while he's right about what ARod and others have done as far as their reputation goes and about the big scarlet 'S' being brought up and dampening the celebration every time a milestone gets passed, he also continuing the bad reporting that helped the scandal to go on as long as it did. Years after missing a virtual epidemic in the sport he and many of his contemporary journos cover and being fooled for so long by players they simply assumed to be clean, they continue to treat certain players as their go-to exemplars of cleanliness based on nothing more than the absence of their names on some incomplete & old report combined with a vague likability factor. I mean we in NY have come to expect this treatment of Jeter but, just in the last few days, I've heard others cite the likes of Frank Thomas, Albert Pujols, Ken Griffey as members of their 'known to be clean' HR leaders list. Yeah OK, if you say so.

That's what gets me. And it's not just sloppy and naive to do that, it actually helps hacks like O'Connor to have some go-to heroes to bash the villains with. Pee in a cup for me, Jeets.

[DocTee]

I was surprised to learn that the plurality of his HRs came as a MFY.

I also thought that performance-based incentives (tied to stats) were verbotten. All-Star appearances, post-season awards, etc are OK, but RBI and the like are not.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Milestones-- as in career, not in-season-- might be exempt from the perf-based-incentives ban.

[Guest Edgy DC]

It's also a tapdancing around it sort of thing. It's not phrased around a number, but achieving a postion on the list. Sort of like an All Star appearance.

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy DC wrote: It's also a tapdancing around it sort of thing. It's not phrased around a number, but achieving a postion on the list. Sort of like an All Star appearance.

Yeah. It was allowed because, rather than being looked at as some in-season target, he's being paid for career milestones and therefore they can tie it to all kinds of marketing & merchandising ploys.

Of course what was really in it from the NYY point of view was their ability to 're-claim' the all-time HR record and have it back with a 'clean' player playing for the team where the record 'rightfully belongs'.

Ooops!

Not only is the clean part out the window but - with it taking (to the day) three years between #500 & #600 - it'll be at least five more seasons until he's in Aaron/Bonds territory which is hardly a given for someone recently turned 35 with hip problems and on pace for barely 25 in the current season. The days of him knocking off 150 in five seasons are behind him for good at this point.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I agree. It's FAR from a sure thing that Rodriguez has another 163 home runs in him. Especially since he's at the age when the breakdown can come at any time.

I wonder how many players have hit 163 or more home runs after their 35th birthday.

[metirish]

Bonds hit 272 from the age of 35 through 42....wow

[Frayed Knot]

Well, considering that he's the youngest ever to 600, at least two have hit 150 starting at an older age and at least three 114 or more.

But, of course, all-time leaders almost always have great end-of-career runs - that's why they're the all-time leaders. Lots of guys have been at or ahead of Rose's pace for hits, just none have gotten anywhere close because to duplicate his early career AND his late one is the part that's so tough.

[Benjamin Grimm]

He's on a pace to hit 25 home runs this year. Assuming he sticks to that pace for the next several years (which isn't a safe assumption, of course) he'll pass Bonds in about six and a half years, when he'll be about 42.

When Babe Ruth was 40, he hit 6 home runs.

In the year he turned 40, Willie Mays hit 18. Hank Aaron had 20. Barry Bonds had 45. Ken Griffey Jr. had 19. Sammy Sosa was already finished.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Interesting that Klapisch and Buster Olney didn't send Alex much love today, symbolic of ARod's status as a non-True Yankee. If Jeter starts breaking down as he gets close to a hits milestone, I expect them to start demanding that anytime Jeets hits into a fielder's choice, it be counted as a hit "because he deserves it."

[nymr83]

Huge 15 year gap between Ott & Williams. Biggest one since was the nearly 10 years after Schmidt and before Murray

How much of that gap can you attribute to the war though?

Williams likely hits #500 in 1955, if not sooner, if he had never served.
Maybe Greenberg finds his way to 500 around 1950, given 3.5 years back from the war and then extending his career a few years to reach the milestone. Ditto Dimaggio.
Musial missed only one season to the war, and was 25 homers short of 500 (but hadn't really become a HR hitter yet by the season he missed, 1945)

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

I always wonder if Mays might have passed 700 had he not missed two years.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I don't wonder. I feel pretty certain he would have. The greater drama to me is whether he would have beaten Aaron to 714. It might've been a heckuva race.