The baseball scoreboards showed that the big 600 mark was reached last week, but very few people noticed it. The great Alex Rodriguez ended his recent drought by hitting over the barrier for his 600 home run. Seven men have reached that number, but no one took as long to get from the 599 to the sacred 600 mark. There was a time when this would have been massive news, brightening up the back and front pages of the newspapers. Journalists would have given a detailed account of the amazing career of the batsman, and supply readers with more stats than they could manage. This, however, has certainly not been the case with Alex Rodriguez.

A big reason for the nonchalance amongst journalists and fans regarding this feat is because many people are disappointed in the player. When the baseball scoreboards showed that Barry Bonds had hit record home run 756, fans straight away were looking for the next person who will be able to take the record back from the much criticized Bonds.

Alex Rodriguez was instantly named as that one, the hero who could take the record back into good hands. At the time, he was knocking off home runs like hamburgers, at it seemed that at that pace it was only a matter of time before he reached the record. With every home run, and every step made up the list of all timers, fans everywhere were sure that this was the man who would break the record. In fact, there was almost a sense of inevitability about it, which was great news for the fans who felt betrayed by the stories of steroid abuse in the game. Unfortunately, this good feeling did not last long.

He was accused of being a doper by the press in spring of 2009, and soon later, Alex Rodriguez held his now famous press conference where he admitted that he took PEDs. Unlike the denier Barry Bonds, he did own up as soon as rumors surfaced, but this did little to save his reputation, as most baseball fans had lost faith in him. Beforehand, most fans were sure that there will be a legitimate home run king in the next few years, but after the revelations, the chance of this happening dropped to almost zero.

This brings us full circle to last weeks story and the magic number 600. Without doubt, it really still is a magic number; a very high milestone in the game of baseball, but the public are no longer interested in Alex’s pursuit of the record. The record would no longer be passing from tainted hands to virtuous ones, and even if Rodriguez does make it somewhere down the line, it is seen nothing more than a transfer of the record between two players who to an equal degree do not deserve to have it. Many fans consider that Hank Aaron is the legitimate home run king, and the only real legitimate contender now to surpass him is Albert Pujols.

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