Posted on 08/04/2010 12:51:11 PM PDT by Upstate NY Guy
NEW YORK Alex Rodriguez became the youngest player to hit 600 home runs and did it with style, driving a pitch into Yankee Stadium's Monument Park in center field exactly three years to the day after his 500th homer.
A-Rod reached the milestone Wednesday after a 12-game drought with a first-inning homer off Toronto's Shaun Marcum. Rodriguez connected with a 2-0 pitch over the middle of the plate for his 17th home run of the season, giving the Yankees a 2-0 lead on a sweltering summer afternoon.
By hitting the homer into Monument Park, a stadium worker could retrieve the ball for him.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
It was a joke. Lighten up.
Berkman has batted 2nd and either 6th or 7th.
SnakeDoc
happy now?
LOL!
Their problem is they signed a couple of head cases and let Junior hang around a bit too long and it has messed them up as a team.
I (heart) NY
It's the Yankees I hate
and let Junior,Chuck Armstrong, Howard Lincoln and some absentee Japanese owner hang around a bit too long
Not only beer and hot dogs, which will slow ya down, but also the Babe hit his 600th in 2,044 games ... fully 223 games less than A-Rod, and still tops on the list as far as least games in hitting 600 HR's
As a comparison, A-Rod (2,267) and Bonds (2,395) games immediately follow the Babe, but old time non-juicers Hank Aaron (2,592) and Willie Mays (2,557) as well as current non-juicer (so far, hopefully) Ken Griffey Jr. took 2,440 games to reach 600 homers. Sammy Sosa is odd man out with 2,592 games and a juicer to boot.
Back to the old timers ... Ruth, Aaron, and Mays had to deal with pitching such as the aggressive 'brushback', 'scuffball', and in Ruth's case, the 'spitball' which was then still somewhat legal. Aaron and Mays had to deal with racism in the ranks of their fellow ballplayers and fans. I'd reckon these three had a much more difficult go at it in reaching 600 homers.
The general meme about A-Rod today is that he is the 'youngest player in history to reach 600 home runs' ... I say BAH to that, age means little ... it's about games played and at-bats which really counts, as well as the aforementioned difficulties that the old timers had to go thru to achieve the milestone.
Just my 2 cents,
-- MM
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.