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Sports Arena
A-Rod’s 600th (Yawn)
Why the fans don’t really care.
New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez on Wednesday became only the seventh player in Major League Baseball history to hit 600 career home runs, and the youngest ever to reach that milestone. And most of baseball fandom yawned — which speaks well of America’s serious baseball fans.
In baseball, history haunts the present every moment of every day. The ghosts of games past, of players and performances, hover not only in Fenway Park or Wrigley Field, but everywhere the game is played. They don’t emerge from the dugouts or rise up through the outfield grass; they are conjured by the minds of the fans.
The romance of the game is one reason. We all remember the players we idolized as children, and we know the stories of the players from eras past that we read about, or that our fathers and grandfathers spoke of with gleamy-eyed reverence. Another is the continuity of statistical records. The relative consistency of the records allows fans and writers to compare players from different eras, and that keeps the old greats alive in the greater fan consciousness.
And so when A-Rod hit his 600th homer, a very large portion of serious fans automatically placed it in its historical context, which is this: In more than a century, only three players hit 600 home runs; in the last eight years, four additional players have done so.
The 600-club is not as exclusive as it used to be. Only a few years ago, its members were Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays. In the last eight years Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey Jr., and now Alex Rodriguez have joined it. In the steroid era, fans have milestone fatigue.
Ken Griffey Jr. has never been linked to steroids. But Sammy Sosa tested positive for them, two San Francisco Chronicle reporters wrote a book documenting Barry Bonds’ extensive steroid use, and Rodriguez has admitted using them for a few seasons. In only eight years, the 600 club went from an elite group of people who earned entry the hard way to one nearly half-filled with cheaters. The country club let in Rodney Dangerfield.
Baseball fans don’t put players on pedestals anymore. They put the game on a pedestal. The game is pure, even if the players aren’t. A lot of the reluctance to idolize players has to do with the taint of steroids, and a lot has to do with the media. When every detail of a player’s life is recorded by a reporter or photographer, the blemishes show. And A-Rod has plenty of blemishes. In addition to his steroid use, he’s shown himself to be the sort of self-absorbed man-child no one wants to root for.
With players like Bonds and A-Rod juicing their way into the record books and acting off the field like all-around jerks, what’s there to get happy about when they reach a historic milestone? A 600th homer looks just like a sixth homer. Why get excited about it? Fans get emotionally invested in such feats when they have an emotional investment in the players who achieve them. Who is emotionally invested in A-Rod’s success, other than A-Rod?
A-Rod is a star that every baseball fan expected to hit not just 600 homers, but possibly well more than 700, almost since his debut. That he got to 600 is no surprise. But there would’ve been joy in watching him get there had he not made it so hard to like him. That he hit number 600 after admitting to steroid use, after years of offending fans with his arrogance and lack of charm, and after three of his contemporaries beat him to it explains most of why fans reacted in such a ho-hum manner to his achievement of this formerly colossal milestone.
In 17 seasons, Alex Rodriguez has averaged 43 home runs every 162 games (one more than Bonds’ career average). His production is down in the past three seasons, and he has only 17 homers so far this year. If he can average 30 a season from this season on, he’ll surpass Bonds’ record of 762 at age 40. If he can play until age 42, as Bonds did, he’d retire with more than 800, a figure unimaginable before the steroid era. (Although Babe Ruth, who averaged 46 homers every 162 games, almost certainly would’ve gotten there had he spent his first five seasons entirely in the outfield rather than mostly on the mound.)
If A-Rod achieves this feat and becomes the most prolific home run hitter in history, he will receive media coverage Paris Hilton would envy, but the adoration of most baseball fans will not come with it. Fans love the players that are lovable, not the players who achieve the most success. That’s why, no matter how much he achieves, A-Rod will never be more beloved than Ken Griffey Jr., who unceremoniously retired this year at age 40 with 630 home runs because he felt he could no longer contribute to the success of his team.
On the whole, baseball fans value character over achievement. Barry Bonds and A-Rod never understood that, but the fan reaction to the steroid era shows it. If the young players coming into the league now get that, there is hope that one day some slugger will replace Bonds and A-Rod in the record books and win the hearts of fans, too. If a player can hit 800 home runs, anything can happen.
About the Author
Andrew Cline is editorial page editor of the New Hampshire Union Leader. His Twitter ID is @Drewhampshire.
Appleby| 8.6.10 @ 7:04AM
Same thing happened in hockey. In the six team days we knew all the players on *our* team and we also knew that they worked on the family farm or jobs like ours in the off season to supplement what they got paid to play a kids game. Today there are 30 teams made up of anonymous interchangeable Russians, Finns, Swedes and God alone knows whom or whence, who are there to earn their $12,000 per minute and go home. Now and then we see one of them being arrested for something, but otherwise we have no connection with the vast majority of overpaid babies from foreign lands who waste our time every Saturday night.
Hockey and baseball used to be about guys like us. Now it is not. Why should we care?
AnonHockeyFan| 8.6.10 @ 10:55AM
Hockey is fun to watch because of the whole us against them mentality. How many Detroit hockey fans don't have a connection to Lidstrom (a Swede)? How many Washington hockey fans don't have a connection to A.Ovechkin (a Russian)? And name one Montrealer who didn't support Jaroslav Halak (a Slovak) during their run to the Conference finals. All I'm saying is hockey (unlike baseball) is unique because fans can relate to all types of players as long as they put in the effort. The players don't have to speak in English or adapt to "our" culture as long as they play with heart and soul. In Baseball, it ain't like that. There is this delicate balance between media and playing the game.
Appleby| 8.6.10 @ 11:30AM
Ovetchkin is Russian for Overrated. And don't talk to Leafs Nation about Swedes.
Pro Sports are Boring| 8.8.10 @ 1:37PM
It speaks to the desperation, decay and utterly sad state of Detroit that they turn to such idiocy to find meaning in life.
Go play life. Don't watch others do it.
scotchieguy| 8.9.10 @ 10:44AM
Ah, the six-team days! Or, for me, from MN, the 12-team days. I knew every player, and it was so cool when no one wore helmets--you really felt closer to the players than nowadays. After the North Stars left for Dallas, I lost interest in the game...I never really could get into the Wild when hockey finally returned to MN. I think the NHL is the worst-marketed sport in history. Too many teams, too many mediocre players, too many games, too many playoff series, too many lousy teams making the playoffs, too much money for a ticket, too few goals, the most ridiculous OT system in the world of sports...OK, college football is close. Whatever happened to the good old days?
LarryK| 8.6.10 @ 8:42AM
Five years from now (six, max) the best player in the game will also cross the 600 HR mark, at roughly the same age that A-Rod did. I'm talking about Albert Pujols of course, who like Griffey has never been linked to steroids (and even has a standing offer for MLB to test him for steroid use whenever it likes). Pujols is the opposite of Bonds and all other spoiled stars in character and personality - hard-working, unassuming, a strong Christian who gives millions to charity every year, and devoted father who married his childhood sweetheart (who already had a child with severe disabilities, who he adopted). It's too much to ask any one player to be the savior of the game, but if anyone can do it Pujols is the man.
TimG| 8.6.10 @ 5:08PM
You're absolutely right about Albert Pujols. There isn't a classier player in the game today. After Albert met Stan (The Man) Musial for the first time, he began politely asking people who addressed him as "El Hombre" to stop, explaining that Stan was the only Man. Now that's class. Too bad A-Rod can't take note.
bob alou| 8.6.10 @ 7:43PM
God Bless Albert Pujols. A real ball player and a great American.
Doctor Right| 8.6.10 @ 8:52AM
I don't care at all.
The only pro-sport I pay any attention to is the NFL. I can't help it, I love watching football, and I always have.
But even there, my patience with these overpaid, pampered, arrogant, under-educated millionaires is growing thin. If they're stupid enough the go on strike next year, they can go to hell, too.
I lost interest in baseball years ago. As a kid growing up in Baltimore, I loved the Orioles andf the Colts. Doug DeCinces (the excellent 3rd baseman who had the misfortune to follow the legendary Brooks Robinson) lived in a row-house in my neighborhood. It wasn't unusual to see Brooks himself walking around town with his wife and kids, either, and he always had a smile and a friendly "Hello", too. And Artie Donovan had a liquor store around the corner from my house where he'd sit outside on warm nights and tell hilarious stories about the NFL's "Golden Age".
But that's all gone, now. Thanks to free-agency and the influx of BIG money into sports, it's just another business. There's no hometown loyalty anymore, as best evidenced by last month's vulgar spectacle involving LeBron James. Players are transitory employees, plying their wares in Anytown, USA for a quicker buck. They make millions of dollars each year, but they have the audacity to charge kids for autographs. They father oodles of illegitimate children by a bevy of women without consequence (except from lawyers).
And far too many of them, like A. Rod, cheat.
They cheat, and they cheapen the game. The spit all over the memories of guys who never heard the word "steroids", and who played the game because they loved it and they couldn't BELIEVE that they were lucky enough to call baseball a "job" and actually make a living at it! Guys who put down their cleats and put on a uniform for their country, risking their lives and also their chances at setting records - men like Dimaggio and Ted Williams.
Think about it: How incredible is it that Ted Williams, arguably the greatest pure hitter to ever play the game, NEVER got 3,000 hits?? If Williams hadn't selflessly put country before baseball and went to war not once but twice(!), imagine the kind of records that he would have set before retiring.
A-Rod, Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds...They're cheaters. They're cheaters, and their "records" should be expunged from the books, or at the very least, be prefaced by an * asterisk, just like they did to Roger Maris, who didn't deserve it.
Hank Aaron is the REAL home-run King.
A-Rod? He's a punk.
Mark Shepler- Jupiter FL| 8.6.10 @ 10:34AM
I grew up playing two games year 'round in sunny S Florida. Baseball and football. Played on baseball teams for seven years, football for three and in the streets of little suburban neighborhood every day. But the game lost me way back in the early '80s when, while flipping through the channels on a Sat. afternoon, I chanced on one of those bench clearing, bat throwing brawls that became prevalent about that time. Add to that the dirt throwing and spittin' mad tirades of the Billy Martins and the increasingly thuggish, bad boy off-field antics of the players and I was just about completely disabused of any foolishness surrounding the "purity" of the game as its realized at its apogee. The player's strike finally did it for me. I played baseball enough to know it is a boy's game that a very, very few privileged men play and who are rewarded far out of proportion to any real contribution to civil society they make nowadays. There was a time they built and played off friendly regional rivalries, gave people something to root for, kids to emulate and generally improved the tone of our culture. Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?
Leroy| 8.6.10 @ 11:13AM
To say Williams selflessly but country before baseball is just incorrect. He was drafted in WWII - he actually protested his change in draft status to delay his entry - and recalled to duty in Korea. He was no more or less selfless than millions of other Americans and less so than many.
monty.crisco| 8.6.10 @ 2:13PM
Need to get your facts straight, Leroy, or at least clarify. He broke every record for Navy aviators at flight school when he did finally go in (he was his mother's SOLE means of support as a baseball player, if you want to begrudge him that), he STAYED in the reserves after he got out after WWII because he felt it was his duty and flew more than 35 combat missions in Korea (and who really wanted to fight in THAT godawful conflict?!?!) as the wingman of John Glenn. Given his talent and situation, I would say that I do NOT begrudge him a damn thing, considering he DID his duty with excellence and -compared to Joltin' Joe who only played exhibition games in Hawaii as opposed to actually being a SOLDIER- would say he was a good deal more selfless than many. And I am a soldier writing this in Afghanistan right now who volunteered his ASS OFF to get here (you might be surprised how hard it is to get shipped off to war in this day an age...)
Leroy| 8.7.10 @ 3:37AM
Monty,
Where exactly did I get my facts wrong? And where did I begrudge him anything?
As far as staying in the reserves he was a member of the inactive reserves. As was damn near everyone of proper age who served in WWII. One of the major controversies of the Korean War was the recall of the inactive reservists before reservists.
As a matter of fact, neither Dimaggio nor Williams left the US during WWII. William's only combat duty was during Korea.
Bob K.| 8.7.10 @ 10:49AM
Leroy,
I don't think you have to get your facts right. But one thing you should get is a life.
hardcard| 8.6.10 @ 9:07AM
Those damn Yankees. All of you rubes love to hate the greatest organization in sports. The Yankees rule.
Doctor Right| 8.6.10 @ 9:14AM
Only a Yankees fan would be so egocentric as to think that a critique of professional sports in general is a critique against the Yankees.
Yankees...zzzz...ZZZZZ...zzzzzzz
JmsA| 8.6.10 @ 9:32AM
hardcard,
You're wrong! I love the Yankess, but cannot stand the cheaters who tarnish the game.
monty.crisco| 8.6.10 @ 2:15PM
Rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for the house in Blackjack...
scotchieguy| 8.9.10 @ 10:52AM
Damn Yankees indeed. Tiger Woods is the Yankees of golf. When either is in contention, the ratings go through the roof. Why? Americans love cheering against the villain.
tdiinva| 8.6.10 @ 9:31AM
The ttop power hitters in the steriod era are not Bonds, A-Rod and Sosa but Ken Griffey and Frank Thomas. These two players hit the homers untainted by artificial means.
Andrew| 8.6.10 @ 9:57AM
Doctor Right said "They're cheaters, and their "records" should be expunged from the books" and I agree.
I am a cyclist and have keep up with the "Tour de France" for the last 20 years or so. Every year several riders are banned from pro cycling for steroid use. Several years ago, American Floyd Landis won the Tour only to test positive for steriods and his "records" were expunged from the books. (Many wonder, even Greg Lemond, if Lance learned to beat the steroid tests)
Anyway, just legalize all drugs. Then A-Rod and and the rest can smoke a big joint just before games to offset the steriod use.
Max| 8.6.10 @ 12:24PM
Free angency killed my love of pro baseball. It made players into mercenaries and killed team loyalty.
JimH| 8.6.10 @ 3:22PM
It didn't start with free agency. How about when the Giants and Dodgers headed for points west. How was that for loyalty?
PCP Smoker| 8.6.10 @ 11:29PM
Well written. ARod is all around scum. I'm sure the 24/7 celebrity media culture has something to do with it, but these steroid pumped androids (Canseco, McGuire, Sosa, Barry "the head" Bonds, Palmeiro, and other) are hard to stomach
Believer| 8.7.10 @ 11:16AM
If you want to watch kids play for the sheer love of the game, go to the Minor leagues and see great baseball . I gave up on the Majors for the same reasons that are listed in the comments above, and now support the local Calif. league team which is Single "A". Great Ball, almost great players and very enjoyable.
Kenneth E. MacAlister Jr.| 8.7.10 @ 7:39PM
My thoughts exactly Believer. I turned my back on Steroidball & it's egomaniacal, pampered cheats going on six years now, but very much enjoy minor league baseball. MLB was killed & spat upon by the cheats like Bonds, McGwire, etc. & I have no respect for MLB letting their tainted records stand. I don't miss Steroidball & find I don't waste as much time in front of tv anymore. Enjoy the players in minor league baseball before they reach the majors & get corrupted by greed, a win at all costs attitude, & greedy, arrogant owners who have no class. I won't waste another penny on MLB. It has no class or substance anymore.
Gerald Stephens| 8.7.10 @ 3:19PM
FLASH…KAGAN CHALLENGED for PERJURY
Larry Klayman, constitutional scholar, attorney, and author of WHORES: Why and How I Came to Fight the Establishment acted in the matter of Elena Kagan by filing a complaint before the U.S. Supreme Court.
July 28, 2010
Clerk of the Court
U.S. Supreme Court
1 First Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20543
R: COMPLAINT TO DISBAR ELENA KAGAN FROM PRACTICE BEFORE THE U.S. SUPREME COURT AND FOR REFERRAL TO THE U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FOR CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION AND FOR OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE.
The full complaint is found at www FreedomWatchUSA.org If ever there was an apple cart overturned, this is the BIG ONE!
Padoux| 8.7.10 @ 7:55PM
As a NO Saints fan I cn say we have found a player, Dru Brees worthy of hero worship, in the NFL. He may not become a legend, that's too early too tell, but his on the field play and off the field work places him in the hero column. Many players in all pro sports are spoiled self promoters, fickle in their effort, and behave badly, sometimes criminally off the field. that's why it's so great to have a true football hero like Brees to look up to.
Believer| 8.8.10 @ 7:42PM
This is the first time I have ever been copied by a pair of athletic shoes, but it's O.K. I dont mind.
The Bishop| 8.9.10 @ 6:16AM
Major league baseball lost it's lustre for me when they expanded from eight teams to a league. Major was diluted by minor and it lost excellence. Long live Nellie Fox and the 1959White Sox!
scotchieguy| 8.9.10 @ 11:00AM
The reason the baseball yawned at 600 was entirely due to the steroid era. Ty Cobb was the biggest punk, but people respected him, and his skills as a player. Baseball is the only sport where records really matter. Quick, who has the most TDs? No one cares about stats in football. The steroid era did one thing unthinkable to old-time fans--it took the record book and made it meaningless. Asterisk or not, no one can honestly compare today's players w/ yesterdays's. 600 is the new 400--Big bleeping deal!