599*

Alex Rodriguez hit his 599th homerun tonight, but a couple of days ago, in his latest blog post, Ken Rosenthal raised an interesting point about Alex Rodriguez:

A-Rod, with each homer, gets closer to $30 million in potential bonuses: $6 million each for tying Willie Mays at 660 homers, Babe Ruth at 714 and Hank Aaron at 755, and tying and breaking Barry Bonds’ record of 762.

The late George Steinbrenner, in his heyday, might have attempted to void those suckers after A-Rod’s admission of steroid use. As it stands, the Yankees figure to receive little of the marketing benefit they anticipated when they included the milestone bonuses in A-Rod’s 10-year, $275 million contract.

Rosenthal goes on to elaborate on that last point with examples of how Arod has personally lost marketability.* Since signing his extension, he lost his standing as the best player on his team, in his division, and at his position. Lastly, Rosenthal shows ways fans have lost the fever to follow a home run chase. The entire post is worth a read.

*I wonder if Tiger had anything to do with that.

When Jason Giambi apologized for nothing in particular about five and a half years ago, there were whispers that the Yankees may try to void his salary because they were duped by a steroid using cheater.

For once, I agree whole heartedly with Ken Rosenthal. I would love to see the Yankees make an example of Afraud and file a grievance with the Commissioner's office. How else may we try to preserve our preferred view of the All-Time Homerun Leaders list?

Henry Aaron ~ 755
Babe Ruth ~ 714
Willie Mays ~ 660
Ken Griffey, Jr ~ 630
Frank Robinson ~ 586
Jim Thome ~ 575
Harmon Killebrew ~ 573
Reggie Jackson ~ 563
Mike Schmidt ~ 548
Mickey Mantle ~ 536
Jimmie Foxx ~ 534
Willie McCovey ~ 521
Frank Thomas ~ 521
Ted Williams ~ 521
Ernie Banks ~ 512
Eddie Matthews ~ 512
Mel Ott ~ 511
Eddie Murray ~ 504