Wednesday marks the last day that Todd Helton will walk onto Coors Field in a Colorado Rockies uniform.
For those of you who don’t know, Helton has been running the bases at Coors Field for 17 years now. He’s 40, and he looks it too, with a lumberjack-beard and the agility of a sumo wrestler.
He also holds just about every franchise record in every offensive category. He was here for Rocktober, the Rockies’ improbable streak to the playoffs, where they won 21 of their 22 final games. He was here in 2005 when the Rockies finished 18 games below .500. He was hitting home runs at a Hall of Fame pace until 2006 when his season totals began to fall.
He may make it to Cooperstown to be inducted as one of the greatest players ever, or he may not.
It would be a tall order to commemorate Helton, a chore I’m probably not qualified to take on. I’m sure as hell no baseball aficionado. I swatted mosquitoes and played with grass in the outfield as a second grade baseballer—that’s the extent of my experience. But I know the rules. I know sports lingo. But above all, I’m a regular guy, just like him.
And I think that’s what’s great about Helton. I don’t think you have to be a baseball fan, or even a sports fan to appreciate him. His legacy should extend beyond his accomplishments at Coors. He should be remembered for more than just his batting average.
This is the same guy that battled back after back and hip surgeries in his late 30’s to continue to play professional baseball; the same player that does charity work for children with his wife.
Helton played in a time of lies and deceit, the dark period of baseball–the steroid era. Yet he has emerged unscathed. In his prime, he put up numbers comparable to men bearing the names Sosa, Bonds and Rodriguez, yet did so without sticking a needle in his arm.
To add to the complexity of his legacy, Helton was charged with a DUI in February. But I tend to view this as big mistake rather than a monumental character flaw. If anything, Helton just got a little closer to earth.
And this is the man that has stayed with the Rockies from the time he was drafted in 1995 out of the University of Tennessee until now—in 2013, the year of his retirement. Loyalty is hard to come by in professional sports, especially in the salary cap-less realm of baseball in which the Yankees attempt to buy championships year in and year out. Through it all, the Toddfather has remained.
That’s almost what defines Helton for me in a sense. ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick used the words “lovable crusty” to describe Helton. In other words, candid. Humble. Down to earth. A genuinely nice guy, and above all, human.
