A-Rod became the first player to reach the 400 mark in homeruns before the age of thirty. These tidbits from Jayson Stark at ESPN help put that in perspective:
• That’s two years and three months younger than Aaron was when he hit No. 400.
• It’s almost two and a half years younger than Willie Mays was when he hit No. 400.
• It’s four years and two months younger than Bonds was when he hit No. 400.
• It’s four years and seven months younger than Mark McGwire was when he hit No. 400.
Rodriguez was helped by the fact that he came up at the age of 18 and began playing full time by the age of 20. That and he didn’t have an aversion to the long ball. In roughly 10 full seasons, he hit 40 dingers. It’s not hard to do the math.
Ironically, Stark throws doubt on whether A-Rod can reach Aaron giving examples such as Ken Griffey Jr and Jimmie Foxx who both petered out as age crept up on them.
I saw AROD play in A ball for the Appleton Foxes when he was just a kid. They gave away posters of Alex Rodriguez. After the game Rodriguez signed autographs for over 30 kids waiting eagerly for this up & coming star. I still have that Class A autographed baseball card. Alex has always been a class act.