661

History was made last night. Alex Rodriguez hit home run number 661, moving him past Willie Mays and into sole possession of 4th place all time. 

It's been a bumpy ride of late for Rodriguez, serving his year long suspension last year for a positive steroid test. Then with the Yankees vowing not to pay him his bonuses for when he hit 660 & 661. For an athlete that could never stay out of the medias eye, he has done a remarkable job keeping calm and contributing at the ripe age of "almost 40." 

As a diehard Yankees fan, I've always loved A-Rod, the numbers he put up with the team, leading them to the World Series in 2009, and always being a great teammate. I grew up with he and Jeter on that side of the infield. The steroids hit me pretty hard, I guess you could say he was something of an idol to me prior to that. 

I still like A-Rod and think he's still got it, for the first time in years he has something to prove, he wants to show everyone age doesn't matter yet, and that he doesn't need performance enhancers. Regardless, Rodriguez was the single most gifted and talented baseball player in the modern era. Steroids don't make you hit home runs, you still have to have the ability to time a 96 mph fastball and hit it. Steroids just improve your focus and increase your muscle tone. 

 

There will never be another A-Rod, for better or worse, he changed the game. 

But as a Yankee fan, and a fan or baseball. Keep hitting Alex, keep hitting 

Money Mayweather

I had to wait to write this post until I knew for sure 48-0 was an actuality. It is, and it happened in dominant fashion. Floyd Mayweather completely dominated his opponent, Manny Pacquiao for just about the entire fight. 

Leading up to the fight last night, i noticed some things and brought them to my friends attention. The media coverage prior to the fight was so lopsided to paint the good guy, bad guy fight that was obvious. When showing pre fight clips, they would show Floyd throwing money around and talking about his cars. Then, they would show Manny holding a baby or walking around the Phillipines. The media needs that good versus bad to have a good storyline. 

Now let's get back to the fight, I never quite understood why anyone thought this would be an enjoyable fight. It pitted a defensive fighter against the "best puncher of this era," something had to give. Plus, the majority of Floyds fights have been defensive, so when at the end of the night Floyd doubled the punches landed and Manny was frustrated because he couldn't hit him, I knew what had happened. Floyd had discombobulated the best puncher of the era by not letting him get punched. It was a systematical dismantling of a great fighter. It was such a showing that people didn't know what to think, until the stats came out that showed Floyd dominated the entire fight. 

In the end, did this fight prove Mayweather is the best ever? No, but it proved that no one can touch him in this era, and it's not even close