With 47,659 fans filling the seats, Derek Jeter on first base, two outs and a 2-0 count against Toronto’s Shaun Marcum in the first inning of Wednesday’s 5-1 Yankees win, Alex Rodriguez became the seventh and youngest man in Major League history to hit 600 home runs with a shot to center field. The baseball — specially branded with “A104” — landed, perhaps fittingly, in the netting that guards Monument Park beyond Yankee Stadium’s center-field wall, where it was snatched by security guard Frankie Babilonia.
Babilonia gave the ball to Rodriguez, receiving a signed bat in exchange.
Rodriguez joins Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714), Willie Mays (660), Ken Griffey Jr. (630) and Sammy Sosa (609) as the only players to hit 600 or more home runs in Major League history. Ruth is the only other Yankee to reach the milestone. Griffey was the last man to reach the 600 plateau, hitting it on June 9, 2008, against Mark Hendrickson while a member of the Cincinnati Reds. Rodriguez is now just nine home runs shy of tying Sosa for sixth on the all-time list. The only active players currently within striking range of the plateau are Jim Thome (577 homers) and Manny Ramirez (554).
The home run — Rodriguez’s 17th of the season, his 255th as a Yankee, his 51st against Blue Jays pitching and his second off Marcum — came in the 13th game and 47th at-bat after he hit No. 599 on July 22. It happened three years to the day after Rodriguez hit his 500th home run off Kansas City’s Kyle Davies.
“It’s definitely a special number,” Rodriguez said before pausing to contemplate the magnitude of his achievement. “I’m certainly proud of it. I’ll treasure it for a long, long time. Many years from today, I’ll be able to reflect a lot better. Today, the focus was that we needed to win. It was good to do it in a winning fashion and to be able to hit it at home.”
Rodriguez hit No. 600 eight days after his 35th birthday, one year and 188 days younger than Ruth was when he swatted his 600th home run as a Yankee. The 2,267 games he required to reach 600 are second behind only Ruth (2,044), and the 8,688 at-bats he needed were fourth behind Ruth (6,921), Bonds (8,211) and Sosa (8,637).
“It’s an historic moment, and a great moment for the Yankees,” manager Joe Girardi said.