600: Does Anybody Care?

For the past week, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez has been on the verge of joining an exclusive club: Major League Baseball's 600 Home Run club. The problem is, other than Rodriguez himself, and maybe Cameron Diaz, does anybody care?

In a word, "no". Before the 2009 season, A-rod admitted to using performance enhancing drugs during the three years (2001-2003) he was with the Texas Rangers. Since then, his home run "total" has been a sham.

How many would he have at this point without the aid of steroids? 550? 500? 400? We will never know. And for that reason, A-rod's 600's home run should be treated like any other. Sure, cheer if the home run is a game-winner, but don't cheer because it's a "milestone".

Now, as is Alex Rodriguez's way, he's putting pressure on himself and taking an inordinate amount of time to reach the 600 home run plateau. At the time of this writing (mid-game on Thursday vs. Cleveland), he's gone a week without a dinger, with no end in sight.

So A-rod, how about it? Just hit the home run already and put us out of our misery. We don't want you to hit it to "see history", and we certainly don't want to see you bank your multi-million dollar bonus for hitting it (the Yankees negotiated the clause pre-steroid admission). Frankly, we're just sick of hearing about it.