Helton, who has spent his career lifting others, ascends to baseball's highest pedestal

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- Long before he became the face of the Rockies franchise -- and, officially on Sunday, a Hall of Famer -- Todd Helton was lifting players who weren’t even teammates yet.

“I had dinner with him before I even made it to the big leagues, and he treated me well,” former outfielder and Rockies teammate Ryan Spilborghs said. “He treated my wife, Stacey, so well. He’s always been like that.”

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So Spilborghs and a large group of Helton's loved ones -- family, old teammates dating back to high school in Knoxville, Tenn., and representatives of the Rockies franchise he represented so well -- supported Helton with all their hopes and emotions when the star first baseman began his acceptance speech during the induction ceremony.

Not to worry. Helton, as they say, knocked it out of the park. He spoke before the other honorees -- Adrian Beltré, Joe Mauer and Jim Leyland -- and left them all with high standards to match.

“We are always nervous for Todd,” Spilborghs said. “We know how much he doesn’t like to talk. And to be the leadoff hitter for the Hall of Fame?

“It was great to see. He was pretty impressive.”

Helton credited his wife, Christy, saying, “She has written every speech I’ve ever spoken. … I think my daughters could have done it just as well.”

Helton has felt humble all along; as he said during his speech, “I’m just a ballplayer.” But after a 17-year career (1997-2013) spent entirely with the Rockies and the all-time numbers he recorded, he can come to grips with being among the best of the best. The other Hall of Famers who took the stage behind him helped.

“Just standing [backstage], waiting to go up onto the stage, the guys were so kind. They all came by and offered advice: ‘Don’t worry about it. You’re nervous. You’ve got this.’ For me, that was the beginning of feeling I belong. But we have a players-only dinner tonight, and I’ll feel like I belong after that.”

Former reliever Matt Belisle, who was a teammate of Helton’s for six of his 15 Major League seasons, felt Helton had the quality to be a Hall of Famer when they played together.

“His reputation preceded him as I got to come into the league,” said Belisle, who remembers Helton hitting a home run off him but also recalls striking Helton out to end one of his stingy, foul ball-filled at-bats. “Being a part of the latter part of his career, I kept rooting for him to keep stacking up the baseball cards. I was on pins and needles for [the six years he was on the ballot]."

Helton’s competitiveness -- a quality "revered" by Belisle -- goes way back. Many of his teammates from Central High School's 1990 Tennessee state championship squad made the trip by car. They showed up wearing a special throwback design -- with Helton Hall of Fame decorations.

“I knew they all had Central High jerseys on -- that’s all I could tell,” Helton said. “That’s pretty cool. I was very happy to see them last night at the Rockies party. I’m so glad they came. Their flight got canceled. They took out three cars and drove 12 hours to be here. That means the world to me.”

Helton rejoined the Rockies organization in 2022 as a special assistant to general manager Bill Schmidt, with an emphasis on position-player prospects. With the duties of a new Hall of Famer, Helton has not been able to make trips to all of the affiliates, but he gives many prospects his personal phone number, and says, “They’re hungry, they want to learn and they’re excited about the future.”

As Spilborghs’ story suggests, Helton has always been interested in players the Rockies develop.

One of them, Brad Hawpe, an outfielder who was part of the 2007 team that went to the World Series (as was Spilborghs), entered pro ball as a first baseman coming off a standout career at LSU.

“More than just a leader, the example [Helton] set was professional,” Hawpe said.

And of course Helton gave Hawpe some career-launching advice.

“The best conversation he had with me was, ‘You look like you’re a good first baseman. … You’d better learn to play right field,’” Hawpe said, smiling at how it worked for him -- and beaming at how it worked out for a Hall of Famer.