New York--Controversial New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez smashed a home run Friday for his 3,000th career hit, becoming only the 29th Major League Baseball player to reach the milestone.
The 39-year-old infielder, whose batting feats have been tainted by two doping scandals, smashed a solo homer off the first pitch he saw, a first-inning fastball from Detroit's Justin Verlander, for the historic hit.
It was the fourth time in as many games against Verlander that Rodriguez blasted a homer, improving him to 11-for-29 lifetime off Verlander with five career homers.
Rodriguez returned this season after serving a 162-game suspension for doping violations linked to the Biogenesis steroid scandal. In 2009, Rodriguez had admitted to using banned performance-enhancing substances from 2001 to 2003 while with the Texas Rangers.
But after sitting out the entire 2014 campaign, "A-Rod" has been knocking off major league milestones.
Rodriguez passed icon Willie Mays for fourth on the all-time major league homer list, now standing at 667, and has also become the American League's all-time Runs Batted In (RBI) leader.
Rodriguez became only the third player to smash a homer for his 3,000th hit, joining Wade Boggs and Derek Jeter, the former Yankee teammate of Rodriguez who retired last year and the only prior player to reach 3,000 in Yankees pinstripes.
The blast into the right-field stands, the 13th homer of the season for Rodriguez, was greeted with cheers from fans at Yankee Stadium and "A-Rod" made a brief curtain call to acknowledge the applause.
In part because of his lengthy ban as part of the Biogenesis scandal, Rodriguez had 2,116 days between his 2,500th and 3,000th hits -- the longest-such gap in major league history.
Rodriguez joined Mays and Hank Aaron as the only players in major league history with 3,000 career hits and 600 career homers.
Rodriguez and the Yankees remain at odds over a $6 million bonus payment that the slugger believes he is owed for tying Mays on the home run list.
The Yankees argue he should not receive a bonus because his drug-tainted past means the achievement isn't marketable, although both parties have reportedly agreed to set aside that dispute for the time being -- with Major League Baseball agreeing to waive a 45-day deadline for Rodriguez to file a grievance.
Rodriguez is signed with the Yankees through the 2017 campaign and if he plays long enough, he could threaten the all-time homer mark of 762 by Barry Bonds, whose feats have also been regarded by many as tainted after his trainer was among those involved in the BALCO steroids scandal.
AFP
