MLB

WATCH: Alex Rodriguez’s 599th Home Run; But Do We Really Care About 600?

600.  Only 6 have done it.

But, after his 357-foot home run off of Royals reliever Robinson Tejeda in the 7th inning of last night’s 10-4 victory, Alex Rodriguez has pushed himself within one home run of becoming the seventh–and the youngest–man to join the club.

599 going on history.

According to A-Rod, however, the Yankees World Series championship run from last season has put the milestone into perspective for him.  And thus, nerves regarding 600 won’t be a factor:

“Nothing’s as exciting as what happened last November. Now, I have a different perspective on things.”

Certainly, Rodriguez has seemed more settled in New York this season, and the pressures that seemed to plague him in past seasons have, at least so far, not appeared to affect either his play or his demeanor.

With this transformation in mind, it will thus be interesting to see how quickly A-Rod achieves his new place in history, especially as, according to ESPNNewYork’s Wallace Matthews:

The last time Rodriguez was this close to a milestone home run, from 499 to 500, it took him nine games and 28 at-bats to reach it, a stretch in which he hit .107.

Yet, if Rodriguez does hit his home run tonight or tomorrow or the next day and does embrace this newfound persona of Zenmaster, another factor could be in play–which ESPNNewYork’s Johnette Howard aptly points out–that isn’t A-Rod’s post-championship perspective.

It is that there is no pressure to begin with.  Because Rodriguez’s admission to steroids last spring has left fans too disillusioned to care.

In Howard’s words:

Rodriguez’s talent is unquestioned. But it’s funny, you never get the sense that people regard every A-Rod at-bat as a must-see event. You rarely hear breathless talk about how he’s walking among baseball’s all-time gods now — even though the stats say he is.

Rodriguez’s many off-the-field dramas have hurt him. Nobody is writing sonnets about Rodriguez’s sweet swing this week. There are no signs that fans are planning to rush to get a bleacher seat in the Yankee Stadium outfield…or bring long-handled fishing nets on the off chance they’ll catch A-Rod’s historic ball during this homestand.

True reverence still seems a long way off…And something about the long ball doesn’t awe us quite the same way anymore.

She’s right.  And the sad truth, moreover, is that, with A-Rod, it did awe us just three years ago.

In 2007, when Alex Rodriguez sat on 499, poised to become, similarly, the youngest player ever to hit 500 home runs, the anticipation surrounding the moment was both mesmerizing and ubiquitous.  The media devoted ample attention to the imminent milestone.  There was a vibrant electricity among the fans.  Truly, people were invested.

But that was in 2007, in a world that still believed that Alex Rodriguez was clean.  And in 2010, sadly, that is not the case.

If ignorance is bliss, then knowledge would appear to breed disinterest.

And, while A-Rod sits on this milestone–tainted by the days of when he was “young and stupid”–you can bet that when 600 does come, people will smile, cheer, and nod.

They just won’t care.

photo via

Here’s A-Rod’s 599th: