Facing the best of the best brought out the best in Todd Helton.
Todd Helton of the Colorado Rockies watches his home run sail over the wall off of Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Jake Peavy of the Boston Red Sox in the second inning Sept. 25, 2013 at Coors Field in Denver. When Todd Helton takes center stage Sunday in Cooperstown to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, more than 50 Hall of Famers will be seated behind him.
In August 1999, during a series in Milwaukee, Helton was struggling a bit, which prompted Hurdle to have a heart-to-heart talk with him. One of the overriding messages: Helton needed to change his body language in the on-deck circle. Hoffman famously arrived to the mound accompanied by AC/DC’s “Hells Bells,” confounding scores of excellent hitters with his changeup. Nobody gave him fits quite like Helton.
“If a guy was primarily a home run hitter, you figured he had some holes you could attack and some impatience that you could sometimes attack,” Glavine said. “An average hitter might be a little more patient, but they didn’t hurt you with the big swing very often. Glavine agreed, and even though he should have had an advantage facing Helton, that wasn’t always the case.
Helton didn’t thrive against every Hall of Famer. Randy Johnson, the intimidating 6-foot-10 left-hander, struck out Helton 10 times in 50 plate appearances . But Helton still managed to hit .271 with five doubles vs. Johnson.
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