A-Rod is approaching Babe Ruth’s homer mark, calls it overwhelming

(Getty Images) Last year, in his return to MLB, A-Rod raced past Willie Mays on the all-time home-run list and reached the famous 3,000-hit plateau. As we head into 2016, there are more rungs for A-Rod to climb in the baseball record books — whether fans like it or not.

While A-Rod did a good job in 2015 of performing on the field, not becoming a sideshow and silencing some of the haters, 2016 could present another pearl-clutching moment for old-school fans. The next name he approaches on the the all-time homer list is larger-than-life — Babe Ruth.

A-Rod sits at 687 homers, 27 away from tying Babe Ruth for No. 3 all-time. Rodriguez hit 33 homers last season, so even though he’ll turn 41 in July, reaching 714 doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility. (While some fans would put asterisks by A-Rod’s numbers tomorrow, we’ll remind you that until MLB officially does that, these are the facts).

A-Rod, for his part, is approaching the Babe with the right amount of modesty. In a wide-ranging interview with Kevin Kernan of the New York Post, A-Rod called the possibility of reaching the Babe “overwhelming.” He said:

“When you start playing baseball at 9 years old, you never think about tying anybody, let alone a guy like Babe Ruth.”

To make catching Ruth even possible after his suspension, he had to change — and rediscover the child-like love he once had for the game.

“It was reconnecting with the game, reconnecting with the clubhouse,’’ Rodriguez told me. “I love the clubhouse. What I found is how much fun the game is and last year I had a lot of fun.’’

A-Rod has sharpened his PR skills in the last few years, so maybe he’s just saying the right thing so that he looks better in the public eye. Doubt the sincerity, if you wish, but don’t doubt that A-Rod has worked hard the past year to become a meaningful contributor to the Yankees again.

[Elsewhere: Jeff Passan talks with commish Rob Manfred about A-Rod and other topics]

This part there’s no debating: If A-Rod approaches 30 homers in 2016, as much as it might rattle some people who thinks he besmirches the record books, it would unquestionably help the Yankees contend in the AL East.

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