Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 01, 2007
Four Year Race

Alex Rodriguez hit home run number 45 today as he drove in four runs after having his bat confiscated.

Tampa Bay had Rodriguez's bat confiscated in a classic case of gamesmanship - one inning after umpires took away Akinori Iwamura's unusual model when Yankees manager Joe Torre questioned if it was legal.

"It's just retaliation. There's nothing wrong with Alex Rodriguez. He's a great player. It was tit-for-tat entirely," Devil Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "I said, 'It's an illegal bat.' I said, 'I can't see inside it, but there might be something inside that bat. I don't have X-ray vision. He's got 45 home runs, it's Sept. 1.' That was my argument."

Both confiscated bats were sent to the commissioner's office for inspection.

Iwamura didn't have that luck, going 0 for 4 with a walk.

Alex's home run was his 164th since joining the Yankees in 2004. There's very tight race for most home runs in that time span between four players. Just six home runs separate David Ortiz from Adam Dunn, with Pujols and A-Rod in between. With all four over 160, each member of the quartet has a good chance to producing over 200 home runs in a five year span.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:38 PM | Sluggers | TrackBack (0)
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