Manny's Moonshot, No. 500

500
Manny Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox hit career home run No. 500 at Baltimore this past Saturday.

23
Other major-league baseball players have hit 500 or more career home runs.

6
Of those 23 players with 500 or more home runs are still playing -- that's if you count Barry Bonds (762 career HRs) and Sammy Sosa (609); neither is currently playing, but neither has formally retired. The other four are Ken Griffey Jr. (599), Alex Rodriguez (526), Frank Thomas (520) and Jim Thome (517).

36
Manny's age; his birthday was one day before he hit No. 500.

$20,000,000
Manny's salary this season, the eighth of his eight-year contract with the Red Sox. There's a club option for two more seasons.

2
World Series championships for the Red Sox -- 2004 and 2007 -- since they signed Manny as a free agent before the 2001 offseason. He was the MVP of the '04 World Series (.412 BA, .500 OBP, .588 SLG, 1 HR, 4 RBI over 4 games). The Sox signed him after losing out to the New York Yankees in a bidding war for Mike Mussina. At the time, it felt like another smack in the face for the Sox to get one-upped by the Yankees, but in what might be the final season of Manny Being Manny in Boston, this is one massive free-agency contract that I think was worth every penny.