The Significance of 600

As many of you may have already heard, Alex Rodriguez hit his 600th career home run yesterday in the bottom of the first inning against the Toronto Blue Jays.  He became the youngest of the 7 players (Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Ken Griffey Jr., Sammy Sosa, Willie Mays, and A-Rod) in the 600 club. He has also played the 2nd least amount of games to get to this historic mark playing 2,267 games (Ruth did it in 2044). He is also the only admitted steroid user in the 600 club.

At 35 years and 8 days old A-Rod is over a year younger then the 2nd youngest player (Babe Ruth) to hit 600, and is 3 years and 8 days younger then Barry Bonds was when he hit the mark.

In the last 8 years 4 of the 7 players of the 600 club have hit their 600th home run, Bonds in 2002, Sosa in 2007, Griffey Jr. in 2008, and Rodriguez in 2010, which shows the controversy of the last 20 or 30 years really being years where pitching has been at an all-time worst.

Because A-Rod has hit this milestone at such a young age, many people believe that he will become the new home run champion in years to come and maybe even be the first player to break the 800 home run barrier. Even Barry Bonds, who posted on his website "Stay healthy and focused... Only 163 more to go." believes A-Rod will break his record in the future.

Someone who threatens to take over Alex Rodriguez's spot isn't much younger then A-Rod, 30 year old Albert Pujols had 366 home runs in his first 9 seasons, whereas Rodriguez only had 298. Pujols is in his 10th season and currently has 393 career home runs, when Rodriguez was finished with his 10th season he only had 345, 38 less then Pujols who still has 54 games left in his 10th season. If Pujols season were to end today, he would still be averaging 4.7 more home runs per season then Rodriguez.

This year Pujols is on pace to hit 36 home runs this year, which would give him 402 for his career, 57 more then Rodriguez.