Daily News to A-Rod : Congrats on tainted 600

My family subscribes for home delivery of the NY Daily News, so today when I went outside to get the paper I was upset with the headline on the back page. You can read the headline yourself with the picture posted and judge if you feel it was fair or not.

I understand that many are going to call A-Rod's milestone homers tainted for his use of performance enhancing drugs that he admitted to using in 2001-2003. I would expect this headline in Boston or any other city but not in New York. The Daily News loves to call it's self the home town paper but on this one its not supporting the home team in anyway.

Alex Rodriguez finally joins 600 home run club

It took Alex 12 games and 46 at bats but three years after he hit home run 500 against the Royals, A-Rod hit 600 against the Blue Jays. On a warm Wednesday afternoon in the Bronx the milestone homer was finally hit in the first inning of the Yanks 5-1 victory over the Jays.

A-Rod became the youngest player to ever reach the milestone and at 35, with 7 years left on his contract he is sure to be the youngest to hit many other milestones.

During the 12 games that it took Rodriguez to hit the ball out of the yard, the Yanks fell out of first place and many began to wonder if the circus surrounding 600 had become a distraction. Well it has yet to be determined if it spur the Yanks to play better now that they wont be distracted by A-Rod's quest.

Unlike in 2007 when A-Rod hit 500, their wont be any question as to what will happen with the baseball. All the baseballs had been specially marked since he hit 599, so that if the ball landed in the stands, it would be known that the ball would be the authentic one Alex had hit out. But when A-Rod got up in the bottom of the first inning and hit 600, nobody had to worry about if the ball was authentic since the ball landed in monument park, an area that A-Rod will also land. The ball was retrieved by a security guard who gave it back to Rodriguez for nothing but a signed bat. When A-Rod hit his 500th homer it sold for $103,579, it was unsure if the 600 ball would have gone for more or less. It could have gone for more since 600 homers is even harder then 500. But could have been less since A-Rod has since acknowledged using performance enhancing drugs.

Now that 600 is over with the next milestone will be passing Sammy Sosa (609) on the all time list. At the pace the A-Rod is going he may not get it this season. In a press conference after the game reporters asked where this experience ranked in his baseball career, Alex said is was below winning the World Series.

No Home Homer from A-Rod

On Thursday night Alex Rodriguez made himself one step closer to historic home run 600, by hitting 599. The entire weekend fans were waiting for 600 to land in the Bronx, but those fans will have to wait until when ? Well nobody is sure but if it is going to land in the Bronx, it will have to wait until August 2nd. The Yankees will be on the road in Cleveland and Tampa Bay.

It is completely possible that Alex won't hit another home run this week and it can happen in August when the Yankees return home against the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox. Of course I don't have the power to choose when he hits the historic bomb, but I would love for it to be the first game back at the stadium or a game against the Red Sox.

It could happen as soon as Monday night in Cleveland, but any where it happens outside of the Bronx will ruin the moment for A-Rod. In Cleveland the fans are going to boo if the milestone homer is hit there along with possibly a few steroids chants. The same could happen in Tampa. although Tampa has been known to house alot of Yankee fans. But if Alex wants to soak in the moment, it has to be done in New York.

When will # 600 come for A-Rod

When Alex Rodriguez started the 2010 season he was 17 home runs away from 600. At the time i looked at the schedule and figured that he would have that many by the middle of June. We are now at the end of June and Alex has only 11 home runs. So it looks like i will need to reevaluate my original guess as to when he would hit it.

With the struggles of A-Rod this season his 600th homer will come later then expected. Following a post season where we saw Alex hit seven home runs, he is at 11 after 263 at bats this season. So when will this milestone come? Well if i was a betting man i would say that it would come following the all star break, in late July. My best guess would be the week of July 25th to July 31st when the Yanks are in Cleveland and Tampa, but that is only if he continues at his current pace of hitting homers.

If Alex was to get hot it could happen the week earlier at home (July 18-July24). But the other factor of why he may take even longer then the month of July, is because of what happened in 2007 when he hit his 500th homer. A-Rod hit career home run 499 on July,25,2007 it took him nine games in the mean time before he hit his 500th on August 4th. At the time A-Rod did admit that he was pressing a little and the flash bulbs that were going off were bothering him.

The saddest part is that when Rodriguez finally reaches the milestone, it won't have as much hype as when he hit his 500th in 2007. Since that time his reputation has been tarnished with the steroid admission. In 2007 Barry Bonds had just passed Hank Aaron for the all time home run king, and was assumed to have taken performance enhancing drugs (although it still hasn't been proven). Rodriguez was suppose to be the opposite of Bonds, a player that was clean and one day pass Bonds. If A-Rod hits number 600 on the road it will be interesting if the fans plan to cheer or boo. Either way Alex will become the youngest player to accomplish the feat and should be special either way.