With two outs in the bottom of the first inning last night at Yankees Stadium, a packed crowd were on their feet, ready to witness history as New York Yankees‘ third baseman Alex Rodriguez stepped up to the plate against Detroit Tigers‘ starting pitcher, and former Cy Young winner Justin Verlander. On the very first pitch of the at bat, Verlander threw him a 95 mph fastball and Rodriguez sent it over the right field wall for his 3,000th career hit. He looked absolutely stunned as he trotted to first base, and after rounding the bases, he was greeted by the entire team waiting outside the Yankee dugout to give him a standing ovation. Rodriguez even got a curtain call from the crowd.
Wow. How Jeterian of you, A-Rod.
The only difference between the two special moments for their 3,000th hits was that for Jeter, the players and coaches in the Tampa Bay Rays’ dugout gave him a standing ovation as well. For Rodriguez, nobody acknowledged the milestone in the Tigers’ dugout. There was no respect given, and that was no surprise to me.
It was a historic night at Yankees Stadium for multiple reasons. Not only because Rodriguez became the 29th member of the 3,000 hit club, not only because he was just the third player ever to do it on a home run, but because of all that’s gone on with him for the last few seasons. The majority of Major League Baseball fans and players are most likely still angry with him because of the performance enhancing drug episodes with him lying about whether or not he took them, and in my opinion rightfully so. But there was a time while he was suspended that he never thought he’d play baseball in the Major Leagues again, and this record is about the longevity of his career. He’s played in 2,631 games, which is 35th on the all time list for games played, and that’s even with all the games he’s missed in the last couple of seasons because of the suspensions. If you want to ignore his 667 home runs, that’s understandable. PEDs and steroids have to do with enhancing power numbers, but his hits have to do with him putting the bat to the ball, which is just pure God-given talent. There is a reason that, like Michael Kay said, over 18,000 men have played this game, and just 29 of them have reached this milestone.
Dislike Alex Rodriguez all you want. Think of him as a liar and a cheater. That is your right and I’m not going to argue with that. But in this case, I applaud him for being as great of a baseball player as he’s been throughout his career. Whether you like it or not, he has indeed reached 3,000 hits, and that is forever entrenched in the record books.
