Written by Ross Sheingold | 15 February 2010

Although the chase has been somewhat tainted by PED-related controversy, Alex Rodriguez' march toward the all-time home run record is bound to be a story at the new Yankee Stadium for years to come. Heading into 2010, A-Rod is only 17 home runs away from becoming the 7th player in baseball history to hit the 600 mark.

This leads us to one question - when will Alex his his 600th home run, and will it be at Yankee Stadium? With the help of the invaluable baseball-reference, we took a look at A-Rod's illustrious home run history, to try to narrow down a range of dates that he might hit his 600th.

We can be pretty sure that Alex is going to hit 17 HRs in 2010 and reach the milestone - he has done so in every full season in the big leagues. The earliest he ever reached 17 HRs was on May 20th (in 1998 and 2007), and the latest was on August 15th (in 1997). He has hit his 17th HR five times in May, five times in July, three times in June and once in August.

Since dates can fluctuate depending on the way the schedule falls, injuries and regularly scheduled days off, let's take a look at how many games it has taken A-Rod to reach the 17 HR mark in each season:

1996: 69
1997: 106
1998: 45
1999: 51
2000: 57
2001: 46
2002: 52
2003: 69
2004: 68
2005: 47
2006: 76
2007: 42
2008: 65
2009: 57

According to those numbers, on average, Alex Rodriguez hits his 17th home run 61.4 games into the season. For the sake of argument, let's make that 61 games. Taking a quick look at the schedule on Yankees.com, the Yankees' play their 61st scheduled game of 2010 on June 11 at Yankee Stadium against the Houston Astros. Interestingly, that begins a nine game home stand, the Yankees second-longest home stand of the 2010 season.

Tickets don't go on sale until some time in March, but it is probably a good idea to keep an eye on seats for the home stand in the middle of June. The Phillies and Mets games are going to be in high demand regardless of A-Rod's chase, so resale prices are bound to be outrageous. The Astros are probably the least interesting opponent on the Yankees schedule in 2010, but with A-Rod likely closing in on 600 HRs, and the series falling on a weekend, even those games will be tough to get tickets for.

These numbers can be twisted many ways and we're sure some people will take issue with us pointlessly breaking it down in such depth. The bottom line is, Alex's chase for home run glory is going to be a big story during the first half of the 2010 season. Hopefully it won't become a distraction for the team or for Alex. If last year was any indication, we are now witnessing a new A-Rod and it should be a fun ride to 600.