Alex Rodriguez Joins 3,000 Hit Club, But Will He Get The Baseball Back?


Alex Rodriguez didn’t waste any time on Friday in collecting his 3,000th hit. In his first at bat of the game, on the first pitch he saw from Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers, he smacked a home run to right field. For those wondering what kind of reception the controversial Rodriguez received, the fans at Yankee Stadium gave him a great ovation, and his teammates happily slapped him on the back, while the Tigers stayed in their dugout. Rodriguez is just the third player to hit a home run for his 3,000th hit, following Wade Boggs and Derek Jeter.

This is just the latest milestone in what has been a busy season for Rodriguez. In May, Alex hit his 661st home run to pass the great Willie Mays for fourth on the career list. Then last weekend, as reported on here at the Inquisitr, Rodriguez knocked in his 2,000th run.

Rodriguez becomes the 29th player to reach the 3,000th hit plateau. The next player in line for the honor may be Rodriguez’s former teammate, Ichiro Suzuki. Suzuki came into Friday’s action with 2,886 hits. the Miami Marlins outfielder is well over 3,000 hits if you add in the hits he collected in the Japanese League.

Alex may wish he didn’t hit a home run to reach 3,000, because the man who caught the ball, Zack Hample, has no intention of giving it back or at the very will ask for a whole lot of money. Hample told nj.comhe is keeping it.

“My intention all along was not to give it back. You know just because the guy who got Jeter’s 3,000th hit a lot of people called him an idiot. A lot of people said he was a wonderful person and extremely generous. I really think that whatever you want to do with it is your choice.”

Hample, who is a kind of a professional ball collector, softened his stance a bit later in the interview.

“I think that someone like Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez, who has made half a billion dollars in his career, doesn’t really need a favor from a normal civilian and a fan like me. I don’t know right now if I’m going to sell it. I mean, depending on what the Yankees could offer, I would consider giving it back.”

What would you have done is you caught Alex Rodriguez’s 3,000th hit? Would you give it back, sell it to the highest bidder, or blow it up like the Bartman ball?

[Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images]

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