DENVER — The Rockies have never won a World Series in their 31-season history. They have never even won a National League West Division title.
But the team does have two Hall of Fame players after it was announced Tuesday evening Todd Helton was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame, along with Adrián Beltré and Joe Mauer for the Class of 2024. Helton was named on 79.7% of ballots and joins his longtime Rockies teammate Larry Walker into baseball immortality.
The Coors Field Factor, or the perception that Rockies' hitters had it easy compared to hitters on other teams, is beginning to dissolve.
“I think Larry moved that needle more than me,'' Helton said in a Zoom press conference with national reporters after his election. "He paved the way for me. I’ve got to thank him, too. He made it all right for the voters to vote for a Colorado position player.''
For his career, Helton went .345 with 227 home runs and 859 RBIs in 1,141 games at home, and a still pretty good .287 with 142 home runs and 547 RBIs in 1,106 games on the road.
"It’s kind of weird in Colorado. ... I’m not embarrassed at all about my home and road numbers,'' Helton said. "Going on the road after hitting in Colorado is hard. The ball breaks more and it’s a huge adjustment going the season, going through that rigorous grind and being able to make those changes midseason. It is a good place to hit but there is some drawbacks and toughness about playing there.”
Did he think the Coors Field Factor would prevent him from this moment of immortality, especially when he garnered just 16.5% of the vote in his first year of Hall of Fame eligibility?
“I didn’t really listen to anybody or anything this time around,'' Helton said. "I didn’t check the internet, I didn’t watch the baseball channel. I just said if it happens, it happens. Coors Field, it’s a good place to hit. I’m not going to lie. It was fun hitting there. It was harder when you went on the road, but you looked out there and there’s a lot of green. And you just felt like you were going to get a hit.’’
Just 270 players are in the Hall, 1.3% of the approximately 20,500 who have appeared in the major leagues, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. There are another 40 executives/pioneers, 23 managers and 10 umpires enshrined, raising the membership total to 343.
This was Helton's sixth year on the Hall of Fame ballot. His vote totals steadily increased since his first appearance on the 2019 ballot, when he garnered 16.5% of votes. He received 29.2% of votes in 2020, 44.9% in 2021, 52% in 2022 and 72.2% last year. He needed 75% to make it to Cooperstown.
The Rockies great played his entire 17-year career at the corner of 20th and Blake streets. Helton finished his career with 2,519 hits, 592 doubles, 369 homers, 1,406 RBIs and a .316 batting average. He also won three Gold Gloves as a first baseman. Helton ranks 20th all-time in doubles.
“I think I would use the word, 'validate,''' Helton said. "I was talking to my wife and it’s one thing I said, everything I’d done, it really did happen. And it was good enough to make it to the Hall of Fame."
Helton spoke of his father Jerry, a huge influence in his life. Jerry Helton died in 2015.
"My dad was very hard on me but when I would go 1 for 3, which is a bad day when you’re young, he’d say, ‘One for three will get you in the Hall of Fame,''' Helton said. "He was tough on me but he did say things like that that helped me. I knew about the Hall of Fame when I was 8 years old from my dad. That’s not the reason why I played by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m very happy that I made it, let’s just say that.”
In a remarkable six-season stretch from 1999-2004, Helton averaged .344 with 37 homers and 121 RBIs. His best single season was 2000 when he flirted with becoming the first hitter to bat .400 since Ted Williams in 1941. Hitting .395 entering the month of September, Helton finished with a major league-best .372 average while also leading the majors with 147 RBIs and 59 doubles to go along with 42 home runs.
Here are some of Helton's accolades:
- Five-time All-Star
- Four-time Silver Slugger
- Three-time Gold Glove winner
- 1998 NL Rookie of Year runner-up
- Won the NL batting title in 2000
- Lead MLB in RBI in 2000
None of those individual accomplishments, though, matched the famed Rocktober of 2007, when Helton's dramatic walkoff homer ignited Colorado on a remarkable 14-1 run to finish the regular season, then sweep seven more games to win the two National League playoff series.
“My most emotional moment was when I caught the ball and realized we were going to a World Series,'' Helton said. "Other than that it was the home run I hit off [Takashi] Saito in that doubleheader to sweep the Dodgers.’’
To think that Helton was nearly traded to the Boston Red Sox prior to the 2007 season. Rockies officials talked to Helton about the trade before making it. He told them he'd rather stay.
“It was crazy because we wound up playing the Red Sox in the World Series and they throttled us [4-0],'' Helton said. "But I think making it with the team that I struggled with and helped build and put my heart and soul into for all those years -- losing in the World Series meant more than winning it somewhere else.”
Helton and Walker are the Rockies' only Hall of Famers. Walker was enshrined into the Hall in 2020.
Jim Leyland, who managed the Rockies for the 1999 season, was voted into the Hall by the contemporary era committee for managers, executives and umpires in December.
Helton said he had talked to his former University of Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning after learning of his election. Helton will be inducted July 21 in Cooperstown.
Helton's jersey No. 17 was retired on Aug. 17, 2014, before a sold out crowd at Coors Field.
The Rockies selected Helton out of the University of Tennessee in 1995. Helton was a two-sport star while attending UT. He played quarterback for the Volunteers for three years. He backed up Heath Shuler his freshman and sophomore years, and was the backup at the start of his junior year. He got a chance to start after UT's starter, Jerry Colquitt, tore knee ligaments in the Vols' season opener.
Three weeks later, Helton suffered his own knee injury and was replaced by a true freshman named Peyton Manning.
Helton excelled on the baseball diamond while in college. He was a two-time 1st Team All-American and helped lead the Vols to three-straight SEC championships. Helton won the Dick Howser Trophy in 1995, which is given to the best player in college baseball.
The Rockies drafted Helton in the first round, eighth overall in 1995. He spent two years in the minors and made his Major League debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Aug. 2, 1997. He went 2-4 with a single and homer in that game.
“I was very lucky to get drafted by Colorado. Not only was it a great place to hit, it’s got great fans and it’s got great people running the organization,'' Helton said. "And it was 17 great years and I’m not going to lie, I miss it. I didn’t think I would but I miss the competition of going out and playing every day.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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