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Beautiful weather comes with a beautiful game!

One of the Yankees’ most popular pinstripes players kept everyone at the edge of their seats and biting their nails as he came up to bat. The crowd filled the honorable Yankee Stadium with signs and cheers as the 1^st inning was coming to an end with 2 outs, 2 balls, and no strikes. As Toronto’s right-handed pitcher, Shaun Marcum, threw the 13^th pitch to his at-bat opponent, the play every Yankee fan had been waiting for happened.

Exactly three years from his 500^th homer, Yankees’ 3^rd baseman, Alex Rodriguez, makes franchise history by becoming the youngest and seventh baseball player to have 600 homeruns. As the crowd cheered him with a standing ovation, his team welcomed him to the dugout with heartwarming pats on the back. “He had a good pitch to hit, he did what he’s done 600 times. He had a good swing at it and well, fortunately I think for him it’s over with, it’s done with,” Captain Derek Jeter commented on his teammate’s history breaker.

Going into a two-week slump, today’s 5-1 Yankee-winning game breathed a sigh of relief for A-Rod as he was 1 for 4 with 2 RBI’s along with his homerun. “I knew it was going to happen sooner or later. It takes time. People expect way too much from these players that they forget that they're human,” says fan Jelimer Polanco.                      

A-Rod was one lucky man tonight, not only for his history breaking homer, but for making that homer hit Monument Park at center field.  If it had hit into the stands, it would have cost a whole lot of money to buy that ball off the fan that caught it. Frankie Babilonia, a security guard, found the ball and was later thanked personally by Rodriguez who gave him a signed bat in return.

With the lost of the first place title, the Big Boss, and the voice of the Yankees, it’s been a rough summer for the pinstripes in general. “There’s nothing more special than being a Yankee and wearing the pinstripes, and days like this makes you think and wish that the Boss was around,” Rodriguez said.

Could A-Rod have been holding this long enough to make his most wanted play at home? Rodriguez’ 46^th at-bats between his 599^th & 600^th homer put him on a long slump.  “I mean it’s definitely a special number.  I’m certainly proud of it and I’ll treasure it for a long, long time. Many years from today, I’ll be able to reflect a lot better. Today, the focus was we needed to win and it was good to do it in a winning fashion and to be able to get Phil a little breathing room in the first inning,” expressed Rodriguez.

“For my career, less is more. When I think small, big things happen,” said Yankees’ third baseman. “My life is just playing ball, and being one of the guys.”

With Yankees’ biggest rival coming to town for a four game series starting Friday, it was time for the Yankees to come out their slump and take back their first place title.