It could be time to add another face onto the Mount Rushmore of Yankees’ lore.
Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and now Alex Rodriguez.
Barring an enormous finish, Rodriguez’s 2007 season won’t rate as the greatest in Yankees history, but it will be remembered as something special nonetheless.
His final numbers, if Rodriguez maintains his current pace for the final three weeks of the regular season, will include 56 home runs, 155 RBIs and 147 runs scored.
How does that rate in franchise history? Roger Maris and Babe Ruth are the only Yankees with more than 54 homers in a season. And Ruth, Gehrig and DiMaggio are the only Yankees to reach 150 RBIs in a season.
Rodriguez homered twice in the seventh inning of Wednesday’s 10-2 victory over the Mariners, giving him 48 for the season, tying the single-season franchise mark for a right-handed hitter that he set in 2005. With two more homers, Rodriguez will become the first Yankee to reach 50 since Maris (61) and Mantle (54) in 1961. Only six Yankees have scored as many as 140 runs in a season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
“I can’t relate to it,” Derek Jeter said, when asked about Rodriguez’s season. “It’s unbelievable. I haven’t seen anything like it in all my years playing.”
The standard in Yankees history remains Ruth’s 1927 season. That year Ruth hit 60 homers, drove in 164 runs and scored 158. Ruth also hit .356 that season, finishing seventh in the batting race.
For now, Rodriguez says he’s oblivious to the numbers he’s compiling. He says there’s no time to step back and appreciate his accomplishments.
“Not now,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve never done that.”
mpuma@nypost.com