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DENVER — Bowen Byram and Alex Newhook were toddlers. Cale Makar was 3. Nathan MacKinnon was 6.

That is how long it’s been since the Colorado Avalanche last hung a Stanley Cup banner in Denver. Wednesday brought an end to that drought, with the team raising the third championship banner in franchise history at Ball Arena ahead of the Avs’ 5-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks.

Fans rose to their feet when Bernie, the Avalanche’s mascot, skated around the ice while waving a gigantic “Hockey is Back” flag like he has many times over the years. Players and coaches were introduced with all of them receiving strong ovations. The loudest were reserved for Pavel Francouz, Erik Johnson, MacKinnon, Makar and Mikko Rantanen.

Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog, who is on injured reserve, was introduced to the surprise of a number of fans. Landeskog received a standing ovation while skating onto the ice dressed in his full gear.

The players remained on the ice when Blink-182’s bassist and singer Mark Hoppus walked onto the ice to hype up the crowd. Hoppus led the crowd as it sang his band’s 2000 hit, “All The Small Things,” which has become an anthem among Avalanche fans. The crowd sang as the arena video board played a montage of fans celebrating the team’s championship.

Landeskog then grabbed the Stanley Cup, lifted it over his head and then received what might have been the loudest reaction of the evening. He then set the trophy down before joining his teammates so they could get in position to watch the banner go into the rafters.

One player who sat in the distance was Blackhawks defenseman Jack Johnson. He was a member of last year’s team that won the title. He remained on the bench for the majority of the ceremony before taking his place with his former teammates. They all stood arm in arm to watch the banner take its place next to the team’s previous titles from the 1995-96 and the 2000-01 seasons.

“It’s going to be cool to take it all in,” Newhook said before the game. “But we also know it is the end of celebrations and we know that we have to be ready.”

Every banner-raising ceremony comes with its own level of anticipation. For the Avalanche, it started at morning skate. Players walked into a new dressing room and were instantly met with questions about an evening that had been years in the making. It continued when the players arrived at the arena and then took part in a ceremony that saw them walk down a red carpet surrounded by fans.

That is also around the same time Hoppus arrived at Ball Arena. He drew a few double takes from arena workers and anyone else who was around when he walked throughout the hallways while wearing a blue Los Angeles Rams hoodie. Hoppus then met with the arena’s entertainment and production team, which walked him through his part in the ceremony.

Blink-182’s classic hit started becoming an in-game tradition early in the 2019-20 season. It would be played between sequences and eventually, the crowd kept singing long after the song ended and play continued.

Hoppus said he first became aware of it after seeing a tweet from a fan saying he should check out how the Avalanche was using Blink’s iconic song.

“It’s insane. We wrote that song in ’99 and here 23 years later, people are still singing it,” Hoppus said. “People imitate [guitarist/singer Tom DeLonge’s] voice. It’s a whole thing. It’s taken a life of its own beyond us and our band. It fills me with joy.”

Hoppus said he did not get a chance to watch the Avalanche’s entire playoff run. But he was able to watch Game 6 when they clinched the title against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“We tried to come out at one point during the Stanley Cup finals and our plane had mechanical issues and we weren’t able to take off,” said Hoppus, a day after the band announced it was reuniting and going to release a new album.

A few months later, it all worked out. NHL chief content officer Steve Mayer told ESPN on Wednesday that it was an easy decision for the league to reach out to Blink-182 after seeing how much of a connection that Avalanche fans had with the song. Mayer said the league had a previous relationship with the band, and that it was instantly on board until the travel issues paused the plans.

Originally, Travis Barker, DeLonge and Hoppus were to all fly to Denver for Game 5 and lead the crowd in singing the song — similar to what Hoppus did Wednesday.

“We then got a phone call that afternoon they were all on the plane, but the plane was having mechanical difficulties,” Mayer said. “We tried desperately to find another plane. As it turned out, we could not find one. We hadn’t announced it. But we were so bummed. We were so upset.”

There was a plan, however, to have Blink-182 try again if there was a Game 7. Once that wasn’t in the cards, the strategy turned to the opener. Mayer, in fact, said Blink-182 reached back out to see if there was a way it could do something in the fall.

“It turned out today not all the band members could be here,” Mayer said. “But Mark is the biggest advocate of the song. … When we reached out, he wanted to do it. It turned out to be a really cool moment.”

Planning the ceremony started shortly after the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup, said Steve Johnston, the executive producer and executive for game presentation for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment.

Johnston said his team immediately went to work after the Avs won the Stanley Cup. It started producing the videos that were played during the ceremony while also working on other details like getting a special winch that allowed them to raise the banner over the netting along the glass and into the rafters next to the other banners.

But there were some details that were sorted out much later. One of them being how active Landeskog would be in the ceremony given he is still recovering from an injury. Another detail was finding time to rehearse the ceremony. Johnston said Ball Arena had such a busy schedule that his team only had one banner-raising rehearsal. It was able to rehearse one more time Wednesday afternoon a few hours after the Blackhawks concluded their morning skate.

“We used the 2001 banner to raise because we didn’t want anyone taking pictures of the new banner just in case,” Johnston said. “The whole summer has gone into planning this special night.”

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DeRosa to manage U.S. in World Baseball Classic

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DeRosa to manage U.S. in World Baseball Classic

CARY, N.C. — Former major leaguer Mark DeRosa will manage the United States for the second straight World Baseball Classic, USA Baseball said Thursday.

DeRosa led the U.S. to the championship game of the 2023 tournament, where it lost to Japan 3-2 as Shohei Ohtani struck out Mike Trout to end the game.

Michael Hill, Major League Baseball’s senior vice president of on-field operations and workforce development, will be the team’s general manager, a position Tony Reagins held for the 2023 tournament.

DeRosa, 50, is a broadcaster for MLB Network. He had a .268 average with 100 homers and 494 RBIs over 16 major league seasons.

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Adell’s two-HR fifth inning keys Angels’ rout

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Adell's two-HR fifth inning keys Angels' rout

TAMPA, Fla. — Jo Adell became the third player in Angels history to homer twice in the same inning, Mike Trout and Taylor Ward also homered twice and Los Angeles routed the Tampa Bay Rays 11-1 on Thursday.

Adell led off the fifth against Zack Littell (0-3) with first first homer this season for a 3-1 lead and capped an eight-run fifth inning with a three-run drive against Mason Englert. Adell matched a career high with four RBI.

Rick Reichardt homered twice in a 12-run inning at Boston on April 30, 1966, and Kendrys Morales homered twice in a nine-run sixth at Texas on July 30, 2012.

Ward homered on the game’s second pitch and Nolan Schanuel hit an RBI double in the second.

Jonathan Aranda closed the Rays to 2-1 with a run-scoring single in the fourth off José Soriano (2-1).

Trout hit a two-run homer in the fifth against Littell and added a solo homer in the ninth off Hunter Bigge for his fifth home run this season and the 27th multihomer game of his big league career. Trout also homered in the July 30, 2012, game.

Ward also homered in the fifth, a two-run drive against Littell.

Los Angeles has won four straight series.

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‘I told them the best option was him’: Pete Alonso showing why he’s the guy Juan Soto wanted hitting behind him

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'I told them the best option was him': Pete Alonso showing why he's the guy Juan Soto wanted hitting behind him

NEW YORK — Juan Soto had several questions for the New York Mets during his free agent negotiations this past winter. One was about their lineup construction.

Soto had just spent the 2024 season in the Bronx as half of a historically productive duo who drew constant comparisons to Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. He and Aaron Judge, the American League MVP, were a strenuous puzzle to solve in the New York Yankees‘ lineup. The left-handed Soto hit second. The right-handed Judge batted third. They protected each other and pulverized pitchers. Leaving the Yankees would mean leaving Judge.

“That was one of the essential parts of the discussion,” Soto told ESPN in Spanish on Tuesday. “Who was going to bat behind me?”

The answer seemed clear. Pete Alonso remained a free agent. The first baseman is homegrown and adored in Queens. More importantly, for lineup construction purposes, he’s a right-handed slugger. He isn’t on Judge’s level — who is? — but he ranks right behind Judge in home runs since debuting in 2019. He was an obvious complement to Soto.

“I told them the best option was him,” Soto said.

By late January, Alonso’s return still appeared unlikely. Mets owner Steve Cohen, during a fan event at Citi Field, called the negotiation “exhausting” and “worse” than the Soto pursuit. He left the door open, but much to the chagrin of Mets fans in the crowd that day, he also said the organization was ready to move on from the four-time All-Star.

Less than two weeks later, just days before spring training, the sides came to an agreement on a two-year contract with an opt-out after this season. The 30-year-old Alonso went from seemingly in the Mets’ past to protecting the franchise’s $765 million investment. Two months into the partnership, the early returns of the 2025 season support Soto’s opinion. The best example came in Tuesday’s win over the Miami Marlins.

The Mets, leading 6-5, had runners on the corners with one out in the sixth inning for Soto. Marlins manager Clayton McCullough brought in right-hander Ronny Henriquez — and, despite the runner on first, made the unusual decision to intentionally walk Soto. That loaded the bases for Alonso and created an inning-ending double-play opportunity with a righty-righty matchup — though McCullough made another unusual call by pulling in the infield and the outfield. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said he wasn’t surprised by the Marlins’ decision to walk Soto.

“I think it gets to a point where it’s pick your poison there,” Mendoza said.

Two pitches later, Alonso cracked a 93-mph sinker into the left-center field gap for a bases-clearing triple, blowing the game open on a cold, blustery afternoon in Queens.

It was Alonso’s second double of the day — his first, a Texas Leaguer to right field in the third inning, drove in the Mets’ first two runs. Alonso has served as the offense’s engine in the three hole, behind leadoff man Francisco Lindor and Soto, batting .333 with three home runs, 15 RBIs and a 1.139 OPS through the club’s first 12 games.

“It seems like teams are trying to not get beat with Soto,” Mendoza said. “And then, before you know it, they’re making mistakes with Pete, and he’s been ready to go and making them pay.”

Alonso is looking to reverse a three-year decline in offensive production, making better swing decisions after the worst offensive campaign of his career in 2024. It’s early, but so far Alonso is laying off pitches outside the strike zone more often. He’s barreling pitches over the plate at a higher percentage. He’s crushing pitches the other way — in the Mets’ home opener Friday, he clubbed a 95-mph fastball from Kevin Gausman down and out of the strike zone for a two-run home run to right field.

Hitting behind Soto, who has a .404 on-base percentage as a Met, has made his work a little easier.

“He’s such a pro,” Alonso said of Soto. “Obviously, we know he has power, he has the hit tool. He can hit for average. Super dynamic player offensively. But the thing that I really benefit from is just seeing — because he sees a ton of pitches and just kind of seeing what they’re doing to him, obviously, it really helps because they’re trying to stay away from the middle of the zone with him and I can kind of take some mental notes with that.”

With more pitches to Soto, the game’s most disciplined hitter, comes more strain for pitchers. With more runners on base, comes more pitches — and fastballs — over the plate for Alonso to devour. It is a formula Soto envisioned over the winter. Whether it extends beyond this season remains unknown.

There’s no question he is popular with fans. During the Mets’ home opener Friday, Citi Field roared for Alonso during pregame introductions. The fans did so again when he stepped into the batter’s box for his first at-bat. And then once more, moments later, when he emerged from the dugout for a curtain call after hitting a two-run home run.

This week, one option for replacing Alonso was taken off the board when first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays agreed to a 14-year, $500 million contract extension. Guerrero’s contract should help Alonso’s earning potential if he chooses, as expected, to opt out of his contract and hit free agency again this winter.

For now, in his seventh season, Alonso is thriving as the Mets’ first baseman, hitting behind his team’s most valuable player.

“That’s why you want [protection] like that,” Soto said. “First of all, to have the chance to do more damage and stuff. But whenever they don’t want to pitch me, I know I have a guy behind me that could make it even worse for them.”

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