May 1, 2016; Boston, MA, USA; New York Yankees designated hitter Alex Rodriguez (13) hits an RBI double during the fifth inning against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
The 700 home run club is one of the most exclusive in all of baseball. With Alex Rodriguez close to joining its ranks, let’s take a look back at the group’s members and their legacies.
Hitting a home run is arguably the most awe-inspiring feat that can be achieved in a game of baseball. Naturally, home run milestones are some of the most coveted and revered among players and fans alike. The 500-homer plateau, reached by 27 MLB players, is traditionally recognized as the premier benchmark for sluggers, and a ticket to the Hall of Fame more often than not.
The higher you climb up the ladder, the more impressive the company in which you find yourself. 600 home runs is an even more exclusive club, inhabited by only eight members headlined by legends of the game such as Ken Griffey Jr. and Willie Mays.
In the memories of baseball fans who grew up in the 90s or earlier, the 700 home run mark was a completely different animal, a distinction earned by just two men for whom even the term “legend” seemed insufficient. The group has grown by one since 2004, albeit controversially, as the subject of performance-enhancing substances has roiled the game in recent years and changed the debate concerning home run totals.
The 700-homer club is now on the verge on gaining a fourth member, as the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez currently sits at 695 career home runs, only five shy of the landmark. Of course, A-Rod has courted controversy of his own after being connected to steroids throughout his big league lifetime.
Fans and media have generally come down harshly on PED users, so the legitimacy of Rodriguez’s accomplishments will continue to be argued as he nears the number 700. Regardless of how one feels about the event, it still presents a good opportunity to look back at A-Rod’s checkered yet fascinating legacy, along with those of the three sluggers he is on the verge of joining.
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Alex Rodriguez – 695 HR
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Alex Rodriguez has effectively spent his entire baseball-playing career in the brightest of spotlights. Widely lauded as the greatest prospect of his generation, A-Rod was selected first overall by the Seattle Mariners in the 1993 draft. During his seven years with the M’s, he was as good as advertised and then some. He did it all, hitting for average and power, using his speed as a legitimate base-stealing threat, and playing stellar defense at shortstop.
In 1996, Rodriguez’s first full season as a major leaguer, he belted 36 home runs, kicking off his reign as one of the league’s most prolific power hitters. He hit 42 in 1998 and wouldn’t manage fewer than 40 again until 2004. A-Rod’s eye-popping numbers in Seattle leveraged him into a mammoth 10-year, $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers prior to the 2001 campaign, the most lucrative professional sports deal at the time.
Rodriguez would spend only three years in Texas before famously pushing for a trade to the Yankees, but regardless of where he was, the long balls kept coming. Between 2001 and 2007, he averaged 47 homers per year, topping out at 57 in 2002. He enjoyed arguably his best year as a big leaguer in 2007, posting a career high 1.067 OPS with 54 home runs and 156 RBI on the way to his third MVP award.
It seemed not a matter of if but when A-Rod would smash the all-time home run record. He appeared well on his way in 2007 after becoming at age 32 the youngest player to ever reach 500 homers. That notion took a major hit the following year when it was revealed that Rodriguez had tested positive for a banned substance in 2003. Even if he eventually broke the mark, it would be tarnished in the eyes of many.
Persistent injuries and continued controversy has largely derailed A-Rod’s performance over the past several seasons. He missed 63 games in 2011 and 118 in 2012, and he received a yearlong ban in 2013 for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal. This period wiped out significant home-run-hitting opportunities for Rodriguez, who managed only 41 over that span.
Last year featured a surprise renaissance for A-Rod, who swatted 33 homers in his return from exile. He has struggled in 2016, however, slashing .216/.261/.405 with just eight home runs in 41 games. Even at this relatively slow pace, he should reach 700 shortly after the All-Star break, perhaps even just before it if he rediscovers his power stroke.
Due to his questionable history, A-Rod crossing the 700-homer threshold won’t be the momentous, acknowledged-league-wide occasion it otherwise might have been. But genuine or not, it’s still history and an event everyone will recognize one way or another, whether that be approval or disgust.
Babe Ruth didn’t invent the home run, but he might as well have. In an era where offense was scarce, the “Sultan of Swat” truly brought the homer (and the game of baseball in general) into vogue. Most fans know that Ruth began his career as a pitcher with the Red Sox, but he still flexed his power muscles even while taking the mound. In 1918 and 1919, his final two years in Boston, he led the league with 11 and 29 long balls, respectively.
Ruth was sold to the Yankees prior to the 1920 season, and that’s when the real fun began. He belted 54 home runs during his first year in pinstripes, a truly unprecedented number. He followed that up with 59 more in 1921, along with a career high 168 RBI. The slugging parade would continue throughout the rest of the Babe’s time in New York, peaking in 1927 when he hammered a mind-boggling 60 homers. That single-season record would stand for 34 years until another Yankee by the name of Roger Maris hit 61.
(Of course, in 1961 Maris had eight more games to play with than Ruth did, and he passed the Bambino on the final day of the regular season, resulting in a temporary asterisk in the record books. In light of today’s steroid scandals, that now seems like a rather mild controversy.)
The gregarious and larger-than-life Babe had the perfect personality for a home run hitter, and his demeanor on and off the field attracted plenty of new interest in the game. Between 1918 and 1931, he led the major leagues in home runs in 12 out of 14 seasons, averaging 43 per year. He is still MLB’s all-time career leader in slugging percentage (.690), OPS (1.164) and OPS+ (206).
When Ruth retired in 1935, he did so with a truly remarkable 714 home runs in his account. At the time it was probably hard to imagine anyone else ever coming close. He has been passed twice since then, but it doesn’t diminish his standing in baseball lore one iota.
Once Alex Rodriguez reaches the 700 mark, he will need a relatively manageable 15 homers to pass Ruth. If he picks up the pace a little bit, he could accomplish that in 2016. Otherwise, he has another year on his contract, one he fully intends to play out. Unless he misses significant time to injury, Ruth’s is at least one more hallowed name that A-Rod should be able to eclipse.
If Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record had to fall after nearly four decades, it would be difficult to find a more deserving and fitting person to do it than Hank Aaron. As crazy as it sounds for someone who held the record for over 30 years in his own right, one could argue that Aaron was relatively underrated and underappreciated during and after his big league career.
Never the showman or celebrity that some of his predecessors and contemporaries were, “Hammerin’ Hank” just let his skills at the plate do the talking. Consistency and dedication were his keys to breaking Ruth’s home run record. He led the league in round-trippers a rather modest four times during his 23-year career, and never hit more than 47 in a single season. No wild 60+ homer campaigns to be found. However, Aaron was as reliable with the bat as they came during his prime.
From 1957 to 1973 (17 seasons!) with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, Aaron averaged 38 homers and 149 games played per year. Over that span he never hit fewer than 24 long balls in a season. By the time the 1974 season began, Aaron had 713 home runs to his name – only one behind the Babe’s legendary mark.
Aaron doesn’t get enough credit for enduring the hatred and racism which followed him as he approached Ruth’s record. The grace and dignity he showed in the face of ugliness is as much a part of his legacy as any home run total. He tied the Babe on Opening Day of the 1974 campaign and then hit his 715th homer to surpass him four days later.
Aaron would play two more seasons, pushing his career home run mark to 755. He’s been one of baseball’s most beloved icons and respected ambassadors ever since.
You would think anyone breaking Hank Aaron’s career home run record would be yet another cause for celebration. Unfortunately, Barry Bonds‘ pursuit of Aaron’s all-time mark turned into a serious headache for Major League Baseball and many of its fans.
Bonds didn’t start his career as a muscle-bound slugger. Far from it, he debuted with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986 as a legitimate five-tool prospect. A lanky outfielder, he could definitely hit for power but was just as likely to impact a game with his speed as with his bat. At no point was this more evident than in 1990, when Bonds smacked 33 home runs while also stealing 52 bases. His efforts netted him the MVP that season, his first of seven.
After signing with the Giants before the 1993 campaign, power became an increasingly prominent aspect of Bonds’ game. He hit an MLB-leading 46 homers his first year in San Francisco, and between 1993 and 2000 he averaged 40 a season. By that point he had collected 494 round-trippers for his career, just short of the 500 milestone.
The 2001 season was, of course, the one that changed everything. Only three years after Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa both shattered Maris’ single-season record, Bonds again rewrote the history books. At age 36, he belted an astounding 73 homers. Suddenly, more ambitious goals appeared to be within reach.
Bonds’ public image took a crippling hit, however, after his implication in the BALCO steroid scandal in 2003. He remained defiant, continuing to rack up home runs at a rapid pace into his 40s. On August 7, 2007, he hit the 756th homer of his career to pass Hank Aaron. He finished the season, and his career, with a total of 762, setting a new all-time benchmark.
If Bonds had his way, that number would have kept climbing, too. He intended to continue playing after 2007, but no team signed him as a free agent. Bonds would later claim that MLB owners had colluded to force him and his polarizing presence out of the game, although his indictment for perjury in connection to the BALCO case likely didn’t help. If he had been able to latch on somewhere (or if he hadn’t missed almost all of 2005 with a knee injury) 800 home runs could have been a real possibility.
To Bonds’ credit, he’s taken recent steps to ensure that his life in baseball has another chapter. He is currently serving in his first season as Miami Marlins hitting coach, a role in which he has reportedly thrived. He also took responsibility for his negative image in the latter part of his career.
When A-Rod enters the 700-homer club, he’ll join Bonds as a member whose legacy is much more complicated than Ruth’s or Aaron’s. In a way, the group is sort of a microcosm for the highs and lows of baseball history, particularly in regard to popular perceptions of the home run and the players that hit them.
