Joe Posnanski writes on how we’ve become numb to milestone home runs.

• Mark McGwire joined the 500 Club in 1999… the year after the year when his home run total fell all the way to 65.

• Barry Bonds joined in 2001… in fact that year he passed Murray, Mel Ott, Eddie Mathews, Ernie Banks, Ted Williams, Willie McCovey, Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt and Reggie Jackson. ONE YEAR, he passed all those guys. Well, 73 homers will do that for a guy.

• Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro joined in 2003. Fair or unfair, there was something galling about Palmeiro getting into the club — he became for many a symbol of the cheapening home run.

• Ken Griffey joined in 2004. People had been talking about Griffey being the one who could break Hank Aaron’s home run record… but because of injuries and such, by the time he got to 500 homers, he found a crowded room.

• Alex Rodriguez, Frank Thomas and Jim Thome all entered the club in 2007, and by now, nobody really cared. Manny Ramirez entered in 2008. Gary Sheffield wandered into the treehouse in 2009.

So, yes, The 500 Club started to feel an awful lot like the Columbia Record Club — send in your penny, get your 12 free records and then simply buy five more records over the next three years.

That’s 10 players in an 11 year span, 1999 to 2009. Is that much different than 1965 trough 1971, when seven men entered in seven years? Did anyone think in 1971 that the 500 home run club was devalued because so many players had made it? Remember, too, that the club might be a bit bigger if World War Two had not robbed some prime years from players.

Baseball goes through cycles. There was a high home run cycle in the 1950s and 1960s. There’s been a high home run cycle in the 1990s and 2000s. I suspect there will be another one in the 2030s and 2040s. Home runs are fun, so let’s not get too overwrought when players hit a lot of them.