The 400 home run club has a new member.
Sunday afternoon Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira swatted hit 400th career homer, sending a high fly ball into the right field seats at Petco Park. Here's the video. It looks like a lazy pop-up off the bat that just kept carrying and carrying and carrying.
Teixeira is the 55th player in history to hit 400 home runs overall, though he's only the fifth switch-hitter to reach that mark. Teammate Carlos Beltran did it earlier this season. Here's the all-time home run list among switch-hitters:
- Mickey Mantle - 536 HR
- Eddie Murray - 504 HR
- Chipper Jones - 468 HR
- Carlos Beltran - 411 HR
- Mark Teixeira - 400 HR
Lance Berkman is sixth among all switch-hitters with 366 career homers, so there's some distance between the top four and everyone else. Victor Martinez has 216 homers and is third among active switch-hitters behind Beltran and Teixeira.
Teixeira added another home run later in the game for No. 401 of his career. Despite those two long balls, Teixeira is not having a good season overall. Those homers were only his sixth and seventh of the year, and they improved his season batting line to .192/.276/.323. He also missed several weeks with a knee injury.