When it comes to Alex Rodriguez, the last thing Brandon Morrow wants to be is a historical footnote.
The hard-throwing right hander will take the mound Monday night for the Toronto Blue Jays in a Yankee Stadium that will be packed in anticipation of the New York slugger trying to swat his 600th home run.
The controversial, steroid-tainted Yankees third baseman has been stalled at 599 over his last 10 games and was not in the starting lineup for New York's game on Sunday afternoon, against the Tampa Bay Rays. He entered the game as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning and struck out.
"I hope to make it [11]games," Morrow said on Sunday.
Rodriguez is expected to be back in the lineup on Monday in a more favourable home environment. Saying his swing is a little out of whack, he has not stroked a home run since July 22 and is hitting .263 (10 for 38) with eight RBIs in the interim.
"It will come," Rodriguez told reporters over the weekend, about his quest for No. 600. "Everything is going to be fine."
When it does, the question is, how will it be regarded? Aside from TV highlights of fans scrambling for position in the bleachers to catch the landmark home run ball, the buzz surrounding Rodriguez's run has been low-key.
That's because Mark McGwire altered baseball history forever by extending his Popeye forearms for a fastball from the Mets' Glendon Rusch at Shea Stadium. He ripped the pitch 390 feet, out near the home bullpen and altered baseball history forever.
McGwire's blast off Rusch was his 574th home run, muscling him past Killebrew and beginning the modern generation's relentless push up the leader board. The Yankees' Alex Rodriguez seems destined to finish on top.
Since Hank Aaron's last home run - on July 20, 1976 - the top five on the career list had been frozen in the record books, fixed in the minds of fans. Aaron was first at 755, followed by Babe Ruth at 714, Willie Mays at 660, Frank Robinson at 586 and Harmon Killebrew at 573.
Celebrating Rodriguez's 600th homer will be awkward because he used steroids for three years with the Texas Rangers. Three others in the new top-10 - Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and McGwire - also have been linked with steroids, and their final totals lack the resonance of old.
Do people know, without even thinking, that Bonds hit 762 home runs? Or that Sammy Sosa hit 609, and McGwire 583? Eventually these numbers will seep into fans' consciousness, but interpretations could be cloudy.
If Rodriguez slams his 600th in New York, fans will cheer. He finally won their respect last season with clutch hits that led to a World Series championship. But he probably forfeited their emotional investment because of his steroid use.
"I think a lot of fans are disappointed, and you have a lot of different perceptions," the former teammate Hideki Matsui of the Angels said, through an interpreter. "But for me personally, knowing Alex and playing with him for so long, knowing what he goes through every day to prepare for a game and how he approaches it, I don't think that would really affect the record he's about to reach. He's someone that works really hard and has exceptional talent. That's my perspective."
Morrow will enter Monday's game with experience in this situation, having gone through a similar situation back during his rookie season with the Seattle Mariners in 2007.
"I know they throw out special balls," Morrow said. "I faced Sammy Sosa when he was going for 600. They set a ball out, it said 'SS 600.'"
As far as his record being tainted because of his admitted drug use, Morrow doesn't really see it that way.
"The more people that reach that milestone I guess the less hype there would be around it," Morrow said. "It's an amazing achievement. Everybody's going to have their different viewpoints. By the end of it there's going to be a few guys in there that have been in that bus. I think it's all going to kind of mix in. It's just the era."
Jays manager Cito Gaston doesn't think Rodriguez should have an asterisk beside his home run totals in the record book.
"I watch him hit all the time and I really use some of the things he does, talking to my hitters sometimes," Gaston said. "He has a plan every time he walks up to the plate. You guys have seen him, he'll take a 3-2 fastball right down the middle of the plate and go sit down. That's because that's not what he wanted to hit."
Gaston said it is a plan that has proven successful.
"It has to work," he said. "He has 599 home runs."
With files from The New York Times and Associated Press.