Ten Things About Alex Rodriguez and His 600 Home Runs

Weight lifted…monkey gone.

Alex Rodriguez has joined Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr. as the one of the only players to slug for 600 or more home runs for their career…and he did it exactly three years to the day after he slugged number 500.

For Rodriguez, it took 2267 games…the second quickest behind Ruth (2044 games) to do so. That said, when he took Shawn Marcum deep in the first inning of today’s game, A-Rod became the youngest to accomplish the feat at just 35 years, 8 days old…nearly two full years younger than Ruth when he did the deed.

Here are ten things that I bet you might not have known about the 600 home runs that Rodriguez has hit.

365

Since he hit his first home run June 12, 1995 off Tom Gordon, Rodriguez has gone on to victimized 364 other pitchers. Atop the hit list at eight are three pitchers…Ramon Ortiz, David Wells and Bartolo Colon. All-time home run king Jamie Moyer has given up six longballs to the Yankees third baseman. And of the 365 pitchers Rodriguez has taken deep…some of them were siblings. The brothers Hernandez (Livan and Orlando) and Weaver (Jeff and Jered) are responsible for a combined 12 home runs.

255

I don’t have to tell anyone, but the New York Yankees are not only A-Rod’s third team, but it is the team that he’s been the most productive for. Since he first landed in the Big Apple in 2004…he’s hit 255 home runs. For his first team, the Seattle Mariners, he hit 189 homers and in just three seasons with the Texas Rangers…he hit a mind boggling 156 home runs. Wow.

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