As he waits for Cooperstown’s call, Helton is passing knowledge to Rockies prospects

HARTFORD — Each January, the calls go out, informing and welcoming new baseball Hall of Famers to the club in Cooperstown, N.Y. Todd Helton, the face of the Colorado Rockies’ franchise for nearly three decades, still waits, sitting on impressive credentials.

“I do look at it and care about it,” Helton said as he arrived at Dunkin’ Donuts Park for a week of evaluation and instruction with the Yard Goats. “But there is nothing I can do about it, so there’s no reason to worry.”

Helton, 48, retired at age 40 in 2013 with a .316 career batting average, .414 on-base percentage, 369 home runs. During his sevenyear peak from 1998-2004 he averaged 35 homers and 118 RBI per season.

“I try and play devil’s advocate,” said Clint Hurdle, also in Hartford this week, who managed the Rockies during Helton’s prime. “It’s not because I like him, not because I love him, not because I was with him every day. But I did spend every day with him, I saw the buy-in, I saw the work. He made the guys around him better. His numbers speak for themselves, his [61.9] WAR [wins above replacement] speaks for itself, and his home/road split speaks for itself.”

Helton, in his fourth year on the ballot, was named on 205, or 52 percent of those cast in 2021. He has a long way to go to get to 75 percent, but six more years to get there and as more players are elected or pass from the ballot he figures to gain ground. If there is a drawback to his candidacy, it’s the perception that his numbers are skewed by the hitter-friendly altitude in Denver, a principle not applied to potential Hall of Famers who played in cozy ballparks in years gone by. Helton hit .345 with 227 homers in 11,141 games at home at Coors Field, and .287 with 142 homers in 1,106 games on the road.

“A major-league park is a majorleague park,” Helton said. “Each one comes with its own difficulties. There are plenty of other fields where I could have put the same numbers up.”

Helton, a first-round draft pick after playing football and baseball at Tennessee, joined the Rockies’ organization in 1995 and played his Double A ball in New Haven, hitting .332 in 1996 for the Ravens, who played at Yale Field. He and

Hurdle drove the Rockies together to the 2007 World Series, Colorado’s only appearance, where they lost to the Red Sox. Helton has spent his entire baseball life with one organization — that’s usually a plus for Hall of Fame candidates.

With the magnitude of the Hall in mind, Helton applies one of the skills that made him such an outstanding hitter: patience.

“It’s the ultimate honor,” he said. “It’s not why you play the game, but it’s a great reward if you can get it. You play for the love of the game. I’m looking forward, and I look forward to the vote every year.”

Meanwhile, Helton, after a few years away, returned to the game this year as a special assistant to GM Bill Schmidt, as did Hurdle, 64, who managed the Pirates as well as Colorado. They spent last week in Albuquerque watching the Rockies’ Triple A team, and will spent this week with the Yard Goats, who play six games against Portland.

Helton will spend a lot of time with first baseman Michael Toglia, a lefthanded slugging prospect. Hurdle, who watched a lot of the players for two weeks in spring training, is anxious to dig in and evaluate. Both are looking forward to watching 20-year-old shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, who is tearing it up, hitting. 340.

“I have a lens, Todd has a lens,” Hurdle said. “Todd’s street cred with the players is insurmountable. When you have a player of Todd’s caliber and Todd’s pedigree come and spend time with these guys, I mean, I can talk hitting with them, too, but I was a coach, on the other side of it. It gives us an opportunity to share our lens with Bill [Schmidt], how the culture is being created here and energy the team is bringing to the ballpark every day. We’re here to teach the things we believe in.”

The Rockies’ front office is said to be putting more emphasis on winning in the minor leagues and the Yard Goats, with a vastly improved roster, are in second place in the Eastern League’s Northeast Division.

“It’s not a college atmosphere, but it’s an atmosphere where you are competing,” Helton said. “In 2007 when we went to the World Series we had a bunch of guys who came up together and won together and that was a big deal. It helped us a lot.”