New York--Drug-tainted New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez belted another milestone home run on Wednesday, becoming the American League's all-time leader in runs batted in.
Rodriguez's three-run shot off Chris Young helped the Yankees to a 4-2 victory over Kansas City and took his career RBI total to 1,995 -- two more than Yankees legend Lou Gehrig and alone in third place on Major League Baseball's all-time list.
Rodriguez had already moved past Babe Ruth, who is credited with 1,992 career runs-batted-in, a tally that is somewhat short since the stat wasn't officially kept until 1920 -- six years after Ruth started playing.
"It's definitely an honor to be mentioned in the same breath as Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth," Rodriguez said.
"It is any player's dream. Especially, it is even more special to do it here at home at Yankee Stadium."
The home run was Rodriguez's 11th of the season. The 39-year-old returned on Opening Day after serving a 162-game suspension for performance-enhancing drug violations linked to his role in the biogenesis drug distribution scandal.
He is now just one RBI shy of matching another controversial slugger, Barry Bonds, on baseball's all-time list.
Hank Aaron has the most runs batted in with 2,297.
AFP
