With Barry Bonds on the verge of becoming baseball's home run king, the spotlight soon will shift to New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, the player in best position to take the record from Bonds.
"I'm not going to starting think about what my destination is," Rodriguez said Saturday after becoming the youngest player to hit his 500th home run, mere hours before Bonds tied Hank Aaron atop the all-time list with 755.
A-ROD VS. HISTORY: Facts, figures on other members of 500 club
A-ROD MAKES HISTORY: Accents youth with No. 500
"I have a tremendous passion to play winning baseball and play baseball the right way. Let's take it one step at a time."
Projecting totals is tricky
Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle are the only other players to hit No. 500 as a Yankee.
Though Rodriguez missed by eight days getting No. 500 before his 32nd birthday, he still became the youngest to the milestone by 328 days. Jimmie Foxx did it on Sept. 24, 1940, at 32 years, 337 days.
But Foxx finished his career with 534 homers, demonstrating a point made by San Diego Padres reliever Trevor Hoffman, the all-time saves leader who reached 500 in his specialty this year.
"You can't predict the way numbers are going to go," Hoffman says. "This isn't a game that's about putting up numbers before they happen. How about (Ken) Griffey (Jr.), the poor guy? Where would he be on the list if he didn't have three or four years of injuries?"