A-Rod Won't Be Making History With His 600th HR

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

New York Yankees slugger-queen Alex Rodriguez is on the brink of a tremendous achievement.

The third baseman with the orange face and perfect hair is one home run away from 600 for his career. Performance-enhancing drugs notwithstanding, he's a first-ballot Hall of Famer and every statistical milestone he surpasses simply cements that argument.

But while a 600th home run is certainly quite a milestone, it is not history. Television producers get in these lazy habits of just assuming that since something has been said before, it's correct to say it again. So they continue with such language in their scripts, buffooning their anchors and reporters who perpetuate its misuse.

I know our culture likes to attach drama and hopefully hyperbole whenever possible. A milestone is a milestone, and by all means, celebrate it. Especially if you join a short and distinguished list in the process.

But A-Rod won't make history until he hits his 763rd home run to surpass all-time leading asshole Barry Bonds, a portion of whose own 762 are asterisked by steroid use.

Most think A-Rod will break the most coveted record in sports, and I do too. That will indeed be historical, but until it happens, he's merely marking milestones.

Comments

[Arun]

Well, actually you can argue that he DID make history -- because he is the youngest player to hit 600 HRs.