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BASEBALL COLUMN

Helton Has Savored The Rocky Ride

By MARTIN FENNELLY

Published: Oct 27, 2007

DENVER - Leave it to quarterbacks - Tennessee quarterbacks at that - to stick together.

Not long after Colorado Rockies first baseman and Knoxville native Todd Helton made his first World Series, he phoned Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, who he beat out for the No. 2 job in Knoxville 13 years ago. The reason for the call.

"You know, to see what it's like," Helton said.

You know, on the stage.

Some folks can't wait for this World Series to end. After all, it could snow. Also, no more Fox commercial where annoying "comedian" Dane Cook tells us there's only one World Series, there's only one October.

But here's a good thing: Todd Helton plays at home tonight.

For Helton, 34, the face of the Rockies after all those great left-handed swings across all those awful seasons, there really might be only one October.

So it's nice to see him here, in front of the fans and the team he never wanted to leave, though Colorado management tried to deal him to the Red Sox earlier this season, the same Red Sox who led the Rockies 2-0 heading into Game 3 Saturday night. Todd Helton is hitting only .182 this postseason, but if he does come through, he's happy it will be for Colorado.

"I was drafted by the Rockies," Helton said. "They gave me an opportunity to play in the big leagues. I feel like I owe them something for that."

Pulling for him yet?

It took Helton 1,578 games to get to this Series. It took a miraculous 21-1 run by this Rockies team, one he helped propel. And when they beat Arizona to win the pennant, it was Helton who caught the last out, on a throw from shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.

He raised his arms in the air and let out a roar of triumph.

And those who knew this soft-spoken man ate it up.

"His smile said it all," said Troy Tulowitzki.

"Seeing him at the World Series is one of the career highlights for me," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said.

Helton had always wondered what it would be like.

He always came back to another hitter's hitter, Tampa Hall of Famer Wade Boggs.

"I always looked at Wade Boggs," Helton said. "… I just remember him finally winning the World Series and riding around the stadium with the Yankees."

He had plenty of career highlights before this season, just not team ones.

Few players in recent baseball history have done more in more obscurity.

Since he broke into the Colorado lineup full-time in 1998, Helton has been a hitting machine, nothing less, and never mind that Coors thin-air stuff _ the man is a swinger.

Boston pitcher Curt Schilling this week called Helton maybe the best hitter he faced while in the National League. It wasn't a stretch.

Helton's career batting average of .332 trails only Ichiro among active players and is just a shade better than Albert Pujols.

Everybody knows Ichiro and Pujols, right?

Here are some men who trail Todd Helton in career average: Stan Musial, Wade Boggs, Rod Carew, Honus Wagner, Jimmie Foxx, Joe DiMaggio.

He has never hit lower than .302 in a season. He led the majors with a .372 average in 2000, flirting with .400 into September.

You want a machine? Helton has 33 four-hit games and 20 hitting streaks of 10 games or more. He's the only player in baseball history with 35 or more doubles in 10 consecutive seasons

Oh, and he plays as good a first base as anyone in baseball. He owns three Gold Gloves and made two errors all season, the last one coming against the Red Sox _ in June.

And he also might be starting all-time starting first baseman for the International Society of Optimists.

He always believed the Rockies would make a World Series.

"I always had just a confident feeling that we were going to make it," Helton said, "even though I'm not going to lie and say I didn't have my doubts at some points throughout the last 10 years."

His club gave him reason to doubt. The Rockies had only one winning season with Helton until this one, and that was an 82-80 finish in 2000, which somehow turned into a low point, maybe the lowest for Helton.

"In 2000, we has a really good baseball team. I think we were leading the division and we threw an 0-8 trip leading into the All-Star break to drop us way back down. And that's sort of when we went into the dismantling mode and traded everybody and never got back on track after that. So I think that was probably the low point."

Uh, this is the high.

Helton and the Rockies seemed headed nowhere near that as late as mid-September. They were 76-72.

Then, on Sept. 16, Helton hit his 300th career homer as the Rockies crushed the Marlins.

Two days later, Helton delivered what is easily the biggest of his 1,878 career hits, a walk-off home to beat the Dodgers, now called "The Shot hear 'round the Rockies" by teammates.

"It's one of my favorite moments ever watching him coming around third," Rockies left fielder Matt Holliday said.

Helton hit .390 in September. When the pennant was one, he didn't look for a horse. Instead, he carried his young daughter around the diamond at Coors Field, and everyone saw that smile.

"I always wanted to do it as a Rockie," Helton said.

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