Lack of Excitement over A-Rod’s 600th Homer is Telling
By: Alex Reimer
There is as much excitement around Alex Rodriguez’s 600th home run as there is around tax day. We’re not talking 500th home run, but 600th!
Even with all of the number inflation that’s been seen in baseball since the “steroid era,” hitting your 600th career home run should still theoretically be a big deal. You can still almost count the members of the “600 club” on one hand (Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Sammy Sosa, and Ken Griffey Jr).
It’s easy to point at A-Rod’s involvement with steroids as the reason why nobody seems to care. But at last check, Ken Griffey Jr. hasn’t been linked to performance enhancing drugs. Was it earth-shattering news when he clubbed his 600th a few years ago in an empty stadium in Florida? No.
Jim Thome hasn’t been linked to steroids either. He currently sits at 575 career home runs. Will there be frequent live “Sportscenter” cut-ins during his march towards 600? No.
Whatever the case, 600 career home runs means next to nothing to most baseball fans and it likely never will again. In a way it’s sad, but in a way it’s also just an example as to how life evolves.
When the way the game of baseball is looked at changes, the way players are valued has to change as well. The Hall of Fame inductions yesterday served as a stark reminder that the time for deliberation on the “next era” of Hall of Famers is just about out. There are only so many more Andre Dawson’s that can be inducted before the fact that Mark McGwire isn’t even close to getting in will be more than just a side note.
If numbers from this generation of baseball players mean less than the numbers of those before them, then how will we decide on the Hall of Fame? Not voting for anybody is a cop-out and ridiculous. The Hall of Fame is a museum of baseball history. Are we just not going to include a period of 20 years? If that’s the case, the baseball Hall of Fame will have as much legitimacy as the WWE Hall of Fame.
The question, “was this player a dominant player in his era” has always been a consideration. But it should be more so now, as players can really only be fairly compared to their direct peers.
Ask yourself this question, “Can the story of the history of baseball be told without this person?” If the answer is “yes,” then that person isn’t a Hall of Famer. If the answer is “no,” then steroids or numbers be damned, that person is a Hall of Famer.
Maybe that’s too simplistic, but it’s just one component. A new criteria for voting has to be developed. Reading statistics on baseballreference won’t cut it anymore.
Alex Rodriguez will hit his 600th homer soon, and the world will march on. But in order to properly march on, we must come up with a new way to evaluate careers.
There are only so many more stars of the 80’s we can resurrect to delay the inevitable.
Alex Reimer is the host of the Red Sox podcast, “Without a Curse.” “Without a Curse” is available on both www.thesportsstuff.com and in the iTunes store. Alex is also the host of “The Alex Reimer Show,” which airs Saturday’s from 12-1 PM EST on 1120 AM WBNW Boston and www.moneymattersradio.net. Alex can be reached at, Alexredsox076@aol.com.
