Tennessee native, Todd Helton, helped guide the University of Tennessee to three straight NCAA Regional appearances, including a third-place finish at the 1995 College World Series. He was twice named to the NCAA All-Tournament team and earned a complete-game pitching victory over Clemson in the first round of the College World Series. Helton holds numerous school hitting records and the SEC’s mark for consecutive scoreless innings pitched with 47.2 in 1994.
Helton was a consensus freshman All-American, First Team All-SEC and Third Team All-American in 1993. The honors continued to roll in 1994 as he earned All-America honors by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball.
The 1995 National Collegiate Player of the Year received the Dick Howser Award from USA Today/Baseball Weekly, Baseball America’s National Player of the Year Award, Collegiate Baseball’s Co-National Player of the Year and the Southeastern Conference’s Male Athlete of the Year Award that season. By doing so, he became just the second baseball player to receive the SEC award, while the two-time First Team All-American was also a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award in 1995.
As a junior with the Tennessee Volunteers in 1995, Helton hit at a .407 clip while leading the league in home runs (20), RBIs (92), runs (86), doubles (27), hits (105), walks (61), slugging percentage (.775) and on-base percentage (.522). He also led the conference with a 1.66 ERA while compiling an 8-2 record with 12 saves.
In 1995, Helton was selected in the first round (eighth overall) of the First-Year Player Draft out of Tennessee and went on to make his Major League debut just two years later Aug. 2, 1997. During his first professional season in 1996, he combined to hit .336 with 131 hits, nine homers and 64 RBIs over 114 games between Double-A New Haven and Triple-A Colorado Springs.
Helton spent 17 years with the Colorado Rockies organization, and as the club’s longest-tenured player, he was a five-time All-Star, four-time Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Award winner and three-time Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner.
At the time of his retirement in 2013, Helton held Rockies career records for games played (2,247), runs (1,401), hits (2,519), doubles (592), home runs (369), RBIs (1,406), walks (1,335) and extra-base hits (998). He also ranked 16th all-time among Major League players in doubles (592), 19th in OPS (.953), 35th in walks (1,335) and 37th in extra-base hits (998). On Aug. 7, 2014, Helton became the first player in Rockies history to have his No. 17 jersey retired at Coors Field.