The stage was set for Alex Rodriguez to hit No. 599 or even 600 but baseball fans were left disappointed at the Yankee stadium on Wednesday. However, they soon a new reason to cheer as a new kid on the baseball ground, Colin Curtis, hit his first home run in the major leagues.

Celebrating the 10th cancer-free year of his life, Curtis was abruptly summoned off the Yankees’ bench by Joe Girardi to assume the 0-2 count by Brett Gardner with two on and one out in the 7th innings and stroked a high drive onto the right field bleachers.

From NYdailynews.com:

And yet, considering all the circumstances, one would have to agree that there was something far sweeter and purer about the first home run in the major leagues by a guy who just celebrated his 10th anniversary of being cancer-free than Alex Rodriguez hitting No. 599 or even 600. No offense to A-Rod, who’s had a noble enough renaissance as a Yankee since he distanced himself from his longtime Svengali, Scott Boras, but I think a lot of people kind of stopped counting his homers at 553, his total at the beginning of the 2009 season when he admitted to having been a steroids cheat.

So even though the A-Rod watch might have been on, the moment that everyone at the new Stadium will doubtless now remember for a long, long time - if only because it was so unexpected - was the 25-year-old Curtis stroking a high drive into the right field bleachers after being abruptly summoned off the bench with two on and one out in the seventh inning by Joe Girardi to assume the 0-2 count by Brett Gardner, who had just been ejected by home plate umpire Paul Emmel.

This from a guy who was not even on the Yankees’ 40-man roster this spring (and thus exposed to the Rule Five draft last December) who had all of 27 home runs in 1,611 minor league at-bats.

Curtis diligently worked on the count against Angels reliever Scot Shields to 3-2 and make the score 10-5 from 7-5 in no time, which made fans erupt in celebrations.