The Angels mauled the Yankees on Saturday 14-8, despite New York hitting five home runs in the game. It’s unusual for a team to hit five home runs and lose. Since the start of the Day by Day Database in 1957, there have been 985 team games in which the offense hit five homes. They won 877 of them, making the probability 0.89. It’s very good, but not so good that you don’t see a couple of losses a year.
Alex Rodrgiuez passed Rafael Palmeiro with his two home runs, putting him in 10th place all time at age 33. Having started hitting home runs in earnest at the age of 20, Alex is now on in the top of every “home run through age” leader board from age 20 on. At 33, he’s already ahead of Harmon Killebrew and Frank Robinson at age 37.
The question now is how much two hip surgeries will slow him down. Eight more years of 24 home runs gets him to Barry Bonds. If he hits another 16 this season, that goes down to 22. It certainly seems doable.
My question would be; even if he makes it to the Barry Bonds record, is he not tarred with the same brush now? I don’t know whether he has been.
I know that A-Rod has never been especially popular, but I just don’t seem to detect the same kind of hatred in the media that I read/watch towards him that I thought was evident when Barry Bonds passed the mark – do you feel the same way?
@Alex Hayes: My take is people don’t like Alex, but they don’t hate him the way they hate Bonds. Alex, as far as I can tell, tries to be civil to the media. On top of that, Rodriguez can argue that he hasn’t failed a drug test since penalties were imposed. There’s no doubt his record will be considered tainted, we just don’t know how much.
@David: Thank you for your reply 🙂
I think another part of it is that the baseball-watching public now has steroid-fatigue. A positive test still hurts a player’s image, but now instead of outrage the main reaction is cynicism.
I think that’s the rational reaction, too, by the way.