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What does 600 mean for A-Rod?

Greg Jayne: Commentary

The Columbian
Published: July 25, 2010, 12:00am

This is the dilemma that baseball has wrought, turning what should be a celebratory occasion into one filled with questions and doubt.

Alex Rodriguez is about to hit the 600th home run of his career. It will make him the seventh player to do so; it will make him the youngest player to do so; it will be another step on the road to the all-time home run record.

Once upon a time, such a milestone would have generated unfettered excitement. How awesome are 600 home runs? How many will he end up with? Can he eventually pass Barry Bonds? Will he be regarded as the greatest player of all-time?

These generational comparisons of players once formed the foundation of being a fan. In 1977, we knew that George Foster’s 52 home runs were significant because it had been 12 years since anybody reached 50.

Now young baseball fans have lived through an era in which Luis Gonzalez can hit 57 homers in a season and Brady Anderson can hit 50. Brady Anderson?!? Talk about losing significance.

The problem is not that the numbers have been watered down. It is that they have been taken out of context.

Through 1987, 14 people in baseball history had reached the 500-homer mark; in the past 14 years, they have been joined by 11 others. Of the six players who have 600 homers, three of them have reached the mark in the past eight years. Rodriguez will be the fourth.

What does it all mean? We just do not know any more.

To those who make a living interpreting baseball statistics, this is not that big of a deal. The important thing is comparing players to their contemporaries, understanding that the conditions of the game are constantly evolving.

But that requires a lot of research and a calculator. To the average fan, the Steroids Era has made the numbers convoluted and difficult to interpret.

Which brings up the dilemma of Rodriguez and his legacy. It is the second-biggest dilemma surrounding him, right behind: How could a team with Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez, Jamie Moyer and Jay Buhner win absolutely nothing? But that’s a question for another time.

For now, we’ll focus on the fact that Rodriguez someday might be the all-time home-run king. He someday might be the all-time leader in hits, runs, and RBI. He someday might have numbers that typically would result in proclamations that he is the greatest player of all-time.

Except that those numbers have lost their meaning.

For Rodriguez, they lost their meaning with his admission that he used steroids from 2001 to 2003. This came after the revelation that he failed a drug test that was supposed to remain secret, which is kind of like BP thinking that offshore drilling rigs are not supposed to explode.

To this point, the guardians of baseball have treated steroids users as pariahs, but righteous indignation can be a tiresome sport. Eventually, known steroids users will be admitted to the Hall of Fame, and the use of performance-enhancing drugs will be viewed with much less scorn than it is today.

Rodriguez could well end up being the first steroid user admitted to the Hall, with numbers that are impossible to ignore. And yet, we still will not be sure just what those numbers mean.

Greg Jayne is Sports editor of The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4531, or by e-mail at greg.jayne@columbian.com. To read his blog, go to columbian.com/weblogs/GregJayne

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