Rodriguez Slides into an Exclusively Obscure Club

Or should it be 'obscurely exclusive?'

I would like to preface this by saying that I'm not really a fan of milestone "clubs." In fact, I find it sort of odd that so many baseball fans are mesmerized by round numbers - achievements are certainly worth celebration and discussion, but we as a community tend to go a bit overboard. That being said, this article is going to be about a fairly random, obscure milestone club, as Alex Rodriguez stole his 300th base last night, becoming the third member of the 600-300 club, alongside Willie Mays and Barry Bonds.

Yes - this is a very obscure club. All things considered, it's probably a reach to consider it a club at all ... after all, only seven players amassed the necessary 600 home runs. While the exclusive company is certainly impressive, it's worth noting that Bonds stole over 500 bases and that Mays' bombs came in a less hitter-friendly context, so Rodriguez isn't exactly on-par with those two (as the "club" may suggest).

I was surprised, though, at how exclusive the 300-300 club was - the list is comprised of the aforementioned trio, plus Andre Dawson, Bobby Bonds, Steve Finley, and Reggie Sanders. Granted, that may not be a who's who of superstars, but Dawson and Papa Bonds are borderline Hall of Fame types and Finley and Sanders were quite good for a fairly long time. Knocking on the door of this club are Alfonso Soriano (39 SB), Carlos Beltran (26 HR and 14 SB), Bobby Abreu (32 HR), Jeter (67 HR), and Mike Cameron (31 HR and 4 SB) - again, very good to great players.

In the end, what does this all mean? Well ... it doesn't mean much of anything ... but it's noteworthy and interesting, at the very least.