Albert Pujols is in the company of renowned athletes. The slugger for the St. Louis Cardinals, who just hit his 700th home run, has achieved a milestone that only Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Barry Bonds have before done.
The fact that he is ranked lower than them on the list of all-time home runs is indicative of exactly how great his 22-season career has been. When Albert Pujols hit his first career home run in April of 2001, it was off of Armando Reynoso of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Albert Pujols’ 2001 Home Run Changed The World
Pujols had already been in the game for such a long time at that point that the world seemed to be very different. A glance back at how much things have evolved in the intervening years is presented here for your perusal.
Sports Like Baseball And Others
The Cardinals and Diamondbacks rosters at the time Pujols hit his first show this. In the game, Pujols batted fifth. Fernando Vina, Edgar Renteria, J.D. Drew, and Ray Lankford batted before him.
None of them has played in MLB since 2011. Mike Matheny batted following Pujols; he’s managed the Royals since 2012.
The Diamondbacks won that year’s World Series. Their lineup included Tony Womack (final game in 2006), Mark Grace (2003), Luis Gonzalez (2008), Matt Williams (2003), Steve Finley (2007), and Jay Bell (2003). Grace, Williams, Finley, and Bell all debuted in the 1980s.
Baseball had an amazing year. Ichiro Suzuki led the league with 242 hits, while Randy Johnson struck out 372 hitters. Jesse Orosco, 44, was born in 1957.
Pujols won Rookie of the Year with 37 homers and a 1.013 OPS. Brady had 6 passing yards when Pujols hit his first. In 2001, he replaced Drew Bledsoe and led the Patriots to their first Super Bowl championship.
Now he has seven Lombardi titles and 85,000 throwing yards. Ed Reed played for the 2001 National Champion Miami Hurricanes. All of that happened before Pujols reached No. 700. LeBron James won his second high school title in 2001 with St. Vincent-St. Mary.
LeBron James was a high school standout. James was a high school sophomore in April 2001. Pujols’ Cardinals teammate Nolan Gorman was a baby. Wander Franco was a month old. In August, LaMelo Ball was born.
Technology
In addition to the fact that the first iPhone wouldn’t be available for purchase for another six years, the original iPod wouldn’t be available for another six months. iTunes had just become 4 months old at the time.
Anyone interested in purchasing an original Xbox would have to hold off until November, when the first device was finally made available for purchase. In spite of this, the year 2018 was a fantastic one for video games.
The first installment of “Halo: Combat Evolved,” as well as “Max Payne,” “Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal,” “Super Smash Bros. Melee,” and “Unreal Tournament,” would all be released during that year.
Console players would have the option of purchasing either the Xbox, the PlayStation 2, the GameCube, or the Dreamcast before the end of the year. When Albert Pujols hit his first home run, Wikipedia had been online for just four months.
Wikipedia is now one of the most widely used sources of knowledge and is often used to settle arguments in bars. It wouldn’t be until June of 2004 that Pujols himself was given his article on Wikipedia.
Common Culture
In 2001, not only did “Shrek,” which would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature that year, but also “Harry Potter,” “Fast and Furious,” and “Ocean’s” would all make their debuts.
In 2001, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” would bring in more than $317 million at the box office. This indicates that Pujols’ career lasted longer than the combined 11 installments of the Harry Potter and Ocean’s Eleven film series.
When Albert Pujols hit his first home run in April of that year, the highest-grossing picture was “Spy Kids,” which had more than $17 million in ticket sales.
Shaggy had a hit on the Billboard charts in April 2001, but interestingly, the song that topped the chart wasn’t “It Wasn’t Me.” When Pujols debuted No. 1, “Angel” by Shaggy was in the midst of its reign as the most popular song for the previous two months.
“Hanging by a Moment,” performed by Lifehouse, was the song that was the most successful of the whole year. The birth of future Billboard No. 1 artist Billie Eilish wouldn’t take place until December.