Helton’s hard work pays off

Over the past three years, the Colorado Rockies have become one of the league’s lovable… Over the past three years, the Colorado Rockies have become one of the league’s lovable losers.

But, if you’re on that team, it’s not fun. It can’t be. It’s frustrating and presumably makes everything you do as a player seem fruitless.

In Denver, one player always caught my eye. He hustled and defended hard all the time, and tore the cover off the ball. That player was Todd Helton.

Helton always seems to be working harder than anyone else on the field. And every season of Helton’s career, prior to this year, seemingly had been fruitless.

The Rockies kept losing. The talent kept leaving. Nobody seemed to care except Helton. But he didn’t stop working hard.

Since his first full season with the Rockies in 1998, Helton has never hit below .300. He has three Gold Gloves for his stellar defense at first base. He has been named to five National League All-Star teams. He has a batting title. And he has a Hank Aaron Award as the National League’s best overall hitter from 2000.

Despite all of his success, Helton struggled playing for a team whose front office had no intentions of building a winner.

He was trade bait. He was rumored to want out of his contract, but he kept denying and kept working.

Time started slipping away, and Helton’s incredible career slowly faded, just like the Rockies each year, into the lost space of history stored in baseball’s basement.

Then something changed. The Rockies started winning, and Helton was in the middle of it. A one-month flurry filled with 21 wins in 22 games placed Helton and his band of younger brothers in the World Series.

Believe me, nobody deserves a trip to the World Series more than Helton.

Helton quietly has become one of the best players of our generation. An owner of a career .332 batting average, Helton has compiled statistics fit for the fast track to Cooperstown.

No one thought the Rockies could make the playoffs. No one thought the Rockies could beat the Philadelphia Phillies. No one thought the Rockies could beat the Arizona Diamondbacks.

No one thought the Rockies, or Helton for that matter, would ever be in the World Series.

But if you ask Helton, he’ll tell you he didn’t care, that he’s just happy that things worked out, that his hard work finally paid off. That’s the kind of guy Helton is.

He dropped to his knees after catching shortstop Troy Tulowitzski’s throw for the final out of the National League Championship Series. The relief, the excitement and the joy he must have experienced in that moment is something little kids dream of when they play catch with their dads in the backyard.

Making the World Series is a dream come true for one of baseball’s classiest guys, and no one deserves to live that dream more than Helton.

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