Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 600th home run against the Florida Marlins Monday Night, becoming the sixth player in history to reach that milestone. Griffey joins the ranks of Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Sammy Sosa. Unlike those of Bonds and Sosa, Griffey’s homers have not raised questions of legitimacy. His name has not been mentioned in baseball’s steroids scandal and he has never been caught using a doctored bat.

The 38-year-old Cincinnati Reds Outfielder homered off of Florida pitcher Mark Hendrickson in the first inning. He launched a 3-1 pitch 413 feet into the right field seats. Griffey received a standing ovation and responded by stepping out of the Reds dugout and tipping his helmet to the fans.

Griffey started the season with 593 home runs. He hit No. 597 during a game at the Great American Ball Park, and then went 90 at bats before hitting another homer in San Diego on May 22. He went another 29 at-bats, before hitting No. 599. Griffey went 17 at-bats between that homer and No. 600.

When Griffey was traded to his hometown team before the 2000 season, he was considerably ahead of Aaron’s record home run pace. Griffey hit 40 homers in his first season with the Reds, when he became the youngest to reach 400 career home runs. Then came a chain of major injuries—torn hamstrings, torn patella tendon, separated shoulder, torn ankle—which knocked him way off Aaron’s pace. It took him more than four years to get to homer No. 500 in 2004.

In 2005, Griffey hit 35 homers winning the comeback player award. This was followed with 27 homers in 2006. Last season, he played in 144 games and hit 30 homers, leaving him seven shy of No. 600.

When asked, Griffey has said homer No. 36 was his most satisfying. It came after his father, Ken Sr., homered off California’s Kirk McCaskill on Sept. 14, 1990, an unprecedented father-and-son moment in the majors. To this day, Griffey says the two seasons he spent playing with his father, Ken Sr., in Seattle were the best times of his career. He has suggested that he would like to finish his career back there.