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Albert Pujols is in legendary company.

With his 700th home run, the St. Louis Cardinals slugger has accomplished a feat that only Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds have managed. His placement under them on the all-time home run list tells you just how incredible his 22-season career has been.

Pujols has been in the league for such a long time, in fact, that the world looked very different when he hit his first home run, in April of 2001, off the Arizona Diamondbacks‘ Armando Reynoso. Here’s a look back at just how much things have changed in the intervening years.

Baseball and other sports

We can get such a sense just from looking at the Cardinals’ and Diamondbacks’ rosters at the time Pujols hit his first. Pujols batted fifth in that early-season game. Batting ahead of him were Fernando Vina, Edgar Renteria, J.D. Drew and Ray Lankford. All of them were legitimately good players — none of them has been in MLB since 2011. Mike Matheny batted after Pujols — he’s now managing the Kansas City Royals and has been a major league skipper since 2012.

Their opponents, the Diamondbacks, would go on to win the World Series that year. Their lineup was a who’s who of Baseball Guys — Tony Womack (last game in 2006), Mark Grace (2003), Luis Gonzalez (2008 — and this was the year in which he hit 57 homers), Matt Williams (2003), Steve Finley (2007) and Jay Bell (2003), just to name a few. Grace, Williams, Finley and Bell all started playing major league baseball in the 1980s.

This was a year of incredible numbers in baseball. Bonds famously hit 73 home runs (and walked 177 times), Ichiro Suzuki led the league with 242 hits, Randy Johnson struck out 372 batters. The oldest player in the league, 44-year-old Jesse Orosco, was born in 1957. Even then, among all this incredible talent, Pujols stood out, winning Rookie of the Year honors with 37 home runs and a 1.013 OPS.

When Pujols hit his first, Tom Brady had 6 career passing yards. He’d end up filling in for an injured Drew Bledsoe in the 2001 NFL season, on his way to leading the Patriots to their first Super Bowl win. Now he has seven Lombardi trophies, and has added almost 85,000 passing yards to those initial six.

Ed Reed was a senior on the Miami Hurricanes’ 2001 National Championship team. He then played in the NFL, retired and made the Hall of Fame, all before Pujols hit No. 700.

LeBron James was just starting to make his name … in high school. James was a sophomore at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in April 2001.

Nolan Gorman, Pujols’ teammate this year on the Cardinals, was not yet a year old. Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco was barely a month old. LaMelo Ball wouldn’t be born until August.

Technology

Not only was the original iPhone still six years away from release, the original iPod wouldn’t come out for another six months. iTunes was only 4 months old.

Anyone looking to buy an original Xbox would have to wait — the debut console didn’t come out until November. This was, however, an incredible year for video games. The original “Halo: Combat Evolved” would launch that year, as would “Max Payne,” “Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal,” “Super Smash Bros. Melee” and “Unreal Tournament.” By year’s end, console gamers would have their choice of the Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, or Dreamcast.

Wikipedia, now a ubiquitous source of information and ultimate resolver of barroom debates, was only 4 months old by the time of Pujols’ first home run. Pujols himself wouldn’t have a Wikipedia page until June 2004.

Pop culture

The Harry Potter, Fast and the Furious, and Ocean’s franchises would all debut in 2001 — as would “Shrek,” which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature that year. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” would gross more than $317 million in 2001. That means Pujols’ career outlasted the 11 total movies in the Potter and Ocean’s franchises. In April of that year, when Pujols hit his first, the highest-grossing film was “Spy Kids” with more than $17 million.

The Billboard top song of April 2001 was a Shaggy beat … and surprisingly, it wasn’t “It Wasn’t Me.” Shaggy’s “Angel” was in the middle of a two-month run as the top song when Pujols launched No. 1. Lifehouse’s “Hanging by a Moment” was the most successful song of the entire year. Future Billboard No. 1 artist Billie Eilish wouldn’t be born until December.

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Canucks, Boeser agree on new seven-year deal

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Canucks, Boeser agree on new seven-year deal

The Vancouver Canucks have come to terms with forward Brock Boeser on a new seven-year contract, carrying a $7.25 million AAV.

Canucks GM Patrik Allvin announced the deal on Tuesday during the first hour of NHL free agency. Boeser, 28, was an unrestricted free agent on a previously expiring contract.

Drafted by Vancouver 23rd overall in the 2015 NHL draft, Boeser has collected 204 goals and 434 points in 554 games with the Canucks to date. A top-six scoring threat, Boeser has elite playmaking skills and the potential to produce big numbers offensively. He had his best year offensively in 2023-24, producing 40 goals and 73 points in 81 games.

Boeser didn’t hit those marks again last season — settling for 25 goals and 50 points in 75 games — but was still second amongst teammates in output. He also plays a prominent role on Vancouver’s power play and when he can generate opportunities at 5-on-5, he is a true difference-maker up front for the Canucks.

The extension is a happy ending for Vancouver and Boeser. When the regular season ended, Boeser admitted “it’s tough to say” whether he’d be back with the Canucks. Boeser reportedly turned down a previous five-year extension offer with the club and Allvin subsequently looked into deals for him at the March trade deadline, with no takers. Boeser looked — and sounded — poised to explore his options on the open market.

Ultimately, Boeser decided to stay put by committing the best years of his career to the Canucks.

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Jake Allen agrees to 5-year deal with the Devils

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Jake Allen agrees to 5-year deal with the Devils

Jake Allen, one of the top goaltenders available entering free agency, is not heading to the market after agreeing to a five-year deal with the New Jersey Devils, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.

Allen’s average annual value on the deal is $1.8 million, sources told ESPN. That AAV allows the Devils to run back the same goaltending tandem for next season.

Jacob Markstrom has one year remaining on his contract for $4.125 million. Nico Daws is also under contract for next season, before becoming a restricted free agent next summer.

Several teams were interested in the 34-year-old veteran, whom sources said could have made more money on the open market. However, the deal with the Devils gives Allen long-term security. Allen has played for the Blues, Canadiens and Devils over his 12-year-career. He has started in 436 career games.

Last season, Allen started 29 games for the Devils, going 13-16-1 with a .906 save percentage, 2.66 GAA and four shutouts.

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Capitals sign Fehervary to 7-year, $42M extension

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Capitals sign Fehervary to 7-year, M extension

Washington Capitals defenseman Martin Fehervary signed a seven-year extension through the 2032-33 season that is worth $6 million annually, the team announced Tuesday.

Fehervary, who had one year of team control remaining, will enter the final season of a three-year bridge deal that will see him make $2.675 million before his new contract begins at the start of the 2026-27 season.

He finished the season with five goals and a career-high 25 points while logging 19 minutes. Fehervary also played a crucial role in the Capitals’ penalty kill by finishing with 245 short-handed minutes for a penalty kill that was fifth in the NHL with an 82% success rate.

Securing the 25-year-old Fehervary to a long-term deal means the Capitals now have seven players who have more than three years remaining on their current contracts.

It also means the Capitals front office has one less decision to make ahead of what is expected to be an active offseason in 2026 that will see the club have what PuckPedia projects to be $39.25 million in cap space.

That’s also the same offseason in which captain and NHL all-time leading goal scorer Alex Ovechkin‘s contract will come off their books along with that of defenseman John Carlson.

But until then, the Capitals have their entire top-six defensive unit under contract as they seek to improve upon a 2024-25 season that saw them finish atop the Metropolitan Division with 111 points before they lost in the Eastern Conference semifinal to the Carolina Hurricanes in five games.

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