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This story was excerpted from Thomas Harding’s Rockies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Come Tuesday evening, some former Rockies will be doing what retired players do, which is exactly what they enjoy. But there will be anticipation, and a little more stress than necessary.
Matt Belisle (Rox relief pitcher 2009-14) will likely be driving between two Texas ranch properties. Matt Holliday (outfielder 2004-08, ‘18) in Stillwater, Okla., and Brad Hawpe (outfielder 2004-10) will be working with their sons while helping their high school teams, or maybe some hitters in the pro ranks preparing for the season.
All of them, though, will find a way to get an eye and an ear toward MLB Network’s announcement of the 2024 Hall of Fame class. If they had their way, their beloved teammate, 17-year Rockies first baseman Todd Helton, would already be in the Hall. But none of them are Baseball Writers’ Association of America voters, so they’ve been monitoring the often curious fluctuations of publicly released ballots.
Helton, who shone for the Rockies 1997-2013, fell 11 votes shy last year. In his sixth year of eligibility, he has (so far) swayed some voters his way, but he has also seen some voters who included him in the past not do so this year.
“This isn’t meant to be offensive to the writers or anyone who has been given a vote … but he didn’t have a slump this year,” Holliday said.
Nonetheless, those who have been close to Helton are optimistic that he will join Larry Walker as the second Rockies player to be inducted. Rather than debate voting patterns or statistics that hold water even with the skepticism that comes with playing home games at Coors Field, the former teammates have a clear message: All of Helton’s accomplishments are even more special because he played every game of his career in a Rockies uniform.
There was a World Series trip in 2007 and another postseason trip in ‘09, and only a September struggle in ‘10 kept the Rockies out of the playoffs. That meant there were a lot of tough years. But Helton’s all-time numbers, despite many years of his team not contending, could add to his aura, not tarnish it.
“I recently watched the documentary on Barry Sanders, and I remember Helton saying the best football player he ever saw was Barry Sanders,” said Belisle, who is partners with Helton and Hawpe in the Triple C Ranch in the Texas Panhandle and owns a separate ranch. “As we know, the Detroit Lions were not a good team, and the same years, Emmitt Smith and the Cowboys were killing it.
“What I’m getting at is, [Helton] always played up. He never played down. A winning season brings out the best in an individual. It’s scary to think what he would have done if we were an annual playoff contender.”
Hawpe said, “Think about it. For a 17-year period, every time the other team had pitchers meetings, there was talk about being careful with Todd Helton. It came out of pitching coaches’ mouths, catchers’ mouths.”
If the Hall of Fame tells the story of baseball, it’s a great place for Helton — whose later career produced the most-loved chapter in club history.
Holliday was drafted out of Stillwater (Okla.) High in 1998. Like Helton, who was briefly the University of Tennessee’s quarterback ahead of NFL Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, Holliday was a highly recruited QB. By Spring Training of ‘99, Helton befriended Holliday, partly because of their common background, but also because Helton felt younger players would help him where he wanted to go.
“I remember playing ping-pong at his house — he would invite us over to his rental property,” Holliday said. “He understood the importance of prospects to the organization. He texted us and picked us up. He was very up-to-date on what we were doing.”
Soon, developing Rockies teams were called in some circles “Todd and the Toddlers,” and whether that was a compliment was left to interpretation. But Helton’s belief in the group led to a shining off-field moment. Before the 2007 season, the Rockies came close to sending Helton to Boston. Helton expressed to ownership that it would mean more to win in Colorado.
“He was so passionate about winning that it rubbed off on us,” Hawpe said. “We didn’t want to disappoint him. We learned from him not to chase our careers, our numbers, our salaries. We were chasing wins. That’s what we learned the most.”
It was in 2007 that Helton’s September walk-off home run against the Dodgers’ Takashi Saito highlighted a late-season run that put the Rockies in the World Series – where they lost to the Red Sox.
Current Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon is heading into his 14th season, also all with the Rockies. Back when he and Helton were teammates, Blackmon was battling injuries and trying to establish himself. Now, although he doesn’t compare his accomplishments to Helton’s, Blackmon understands Helton’s role.
“Todd was a tremendous presence because of who he was and how long he had been doing it,” Blackmon said. “It was a real treat to take those preconceptions about him into an actual relationship. Getting to know him was a little hard at first, but it became easier with time.
“I came into his clubhouse as a young player. Now I’m on the other side of that. I try to remember what it was like. A lot of these guys aren’t super naturally gifted from a confidence standpoint, like me. I was a little bit nervous, unsure of myself, and a big part of being able to play at the big league level is either having enough success to where you feel confident, or somehow figuring out how to be competent, productive. So it’s something I’ve tried to do for young players.”
Belisle witnessed a moment at the end of Helton’s career when he suddenly became young again.
On Sept. 25, 2013, in his final home game, Helton homered in the second inning off the Red Sox’s Jake Peavy. All the back pain that accompanied the end of his career, all the good and bad years in a Rockies uniform, melted away. Anyone who had been around Helton over his 17 seasons would have recognized the look on his face.
“I had a feeling,” Belisle said. “With superstars, there are people you play with or play against, special things follow them in special moments. I can’t lie. I was hoping for something theatrical like that. He made it come true.
“I can remember the adrenaline he had coming back, sitting on the bench,” Belisle said. “I was in the dugout after that was done. He was just lit up. Not a lot of people could tell, but I could.”
Now those who were closest to him hope his story will be told forever in Cooperstown.
