As the 600 -Club is about to add a seventh member in Alex Rodriguez, it begs to now ask the question of whether 600 home runs has now become meaningless.  Baseball is such a beautiful game, filled with numbers that provide meaning to all of it’s fans.  Now the once storied 600-Club is about to add another member, but it’s marked with guilt suspicion and of course- needle marks.

How much has the steroid era diminished the 600-Club?

There has never been any knocking A-Rod’s ability.  Four or five years from now, we will see if he has another 162 dingers in him and we can have this conversation all over again.  Given the era that A-Rod played in, this conversation is more about what exactly 600 homers mean anymore.

What’s funny is that since Monday, they were playing with specially marked balls that Mr. Rodriguez isn’t very fond of.  Apparently Major League Baseball is more concerned with defrauding the memorabilia industry more than it’s worried about the guys that frauded their own product.

A-Rod even had the guts to say, “I don’t like it.  The pitchers look at the special ball and think it could be the home run ball and try harder to get me out.”

Really, A-Rod?  Did the steroids melt your brain as well?  Here’s a guy who admitted to using steroids in 2001 (52 homers), ’02 (57 homers) and ’03 (47 homers); worried about pitchers getting an unfair advantage by concentrating more.

I’m not really even faulting A-Rod.  It’s the era he played in and he did what he did.  The public has obviously forgiven him.  I’m just saying that the 600-Club shouldn’t be the glorious club it once was.  If you look at the six current members of the 600-Club: Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa.  There are serious questions about half of them.  That’s a serious problem that Major League Baseball will one day have to deal with and make some difficult decisions.

With all that baseball has done the past few seasons to attempt to eliminate the drug problem in the game; especially now that numbers are back to normal and the “Year of the Pitcher” is all but official.  Baseball simply can’t get behind A-Fraud’s 600th.  Marking baseball’s and staging celebrations isn’t the way to win back the public, especially since there haven’t been many mentions of steroids or HGH all season long.

Is it A-Rod or A-Fraud?

This isn’t about A-Rod or steroids or even Bud Selig.  It’s about a number that was once special and likely will never be again.  Who knows, in 5-10 years, 600 could become 800 and the game will never be the same.

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