Todd Helton

Todd Lynn Helton (born August 20, 1973 in Knoxville, Tennessee) is a Major League Baseball first baseman for the Colorado Rockies. Helton is a 5-time All-Star, 4-time Silver Slugger, 4-time National League Player of the Month and 3-time Gold Glove winner. At the end of the 2009 Major League Baseball season, Helton has the third-highest career batting average of all active players at .328 (among active players, only Ichiro Suzuki and Albert Pujols have higher averages), placing him sixth behind former San Diego Padres right fielder Tony Gwynn (.338), Pujols, Suzuki, Wade Boggs (.328) and Rod Carew (.328) among all players whose careers began after World War II.

Todd Helton Celebration

Helton was drafted in the first round, eighth overall, in the 1995 Major League Baseball Draft by the Colorado Rockies. He was signed on August 1, 1995. Helton spent the next couple of years playing for the class-A Asheville Tourists, AA New Haven Ravens and AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox before getting a crack at the major leagues. He made his major-league debut on August 1, 1997, in a 6-5 road loss against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Helton started in left field and flied out in his first at-bat. He recorded his first hit, a single, in his second at-bat off Francisco Cordova. Helton also hit his first home run, a solo shot, that day off Marc Wilkins.

Todd Helton With His Daughter

Todd Helton Performance During The Match

Todd Helton Happiness Expression

Helton made what was arguably the most pivotal play of the Rockies' 2007 season in the second game of a doubleheader against the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 18, 2007. In the bottom of the ninth inning, with two outs and two strikes, Helton hit an emotional two-run walk-off home run off Dodgers closer Takashi Saito. The home run kept the Rockies alive in the bid to win the wild card or National League West title. The Rockies eventually clinched the National League wild card, in a 9-8 extra innings victory over the San Diego Padres in a wild card tiebreaker game, allowing Helton to appear in the playoffs for the first time in his career. Colorado went on to sweep the Philadelphia Phillies in three games of the National League Division Series. Helton hit a triple in the first pitch of his first career playoff at-bat in the opening game against the Phillies at Philadelphia. The Rockies also swept the Arizona Diamondbacks in four games of the National League Championship Series, sending the Rockies on their first trip to the World Series in franchise history.