Helton Downplays Flirtation With .400

Todd Helton might not think so, yet he could be the right hitter in the perfect era in the ideal stadium to become the first player in 59 years to hit .400.

Helton entered Friday night hitting .396--the highest anyone has been this late in the season since George Brett was batting over .400 in September 1980. Brett finished at .390 in his bid to become the first major leaguer to reach the magic mark since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941.

“No one’s hit .400 for nearly 60 years,” said Helton, who has gone 17-for-24 on the first seven games of Colorado’s road trip to raise his average 18 points. “The media makes a big deal about it, but I believe it’s not going to happen.”

But perhaps no one has had such ideal circumstances to do it in, either. To hit .400, you should be left-handed, draw walks, play in an offense-inflated era and have a home ballpark suited to your swing.

Helton has all of that--especially the ballpark. There has never been a stadium more suited to hitting than Coors Field, with its spacious gaps and thin air.

Helton is hitting .435 at home and, with 25 of his final 43 games at Coors Field, .400 suddenly becomes a much more realistic possibility. On the road, he’s at .359.

But would it be tainted, with half his games coming in a stadium where the average hitter is batting .332 this season? Not according to teammate Larry Walker, who took a .400 average deep into July 1997.

“It’s a major league player playing in a major league ballpark in a major league city,” he said.

Helton, who once started at quarterback ahead of Peyton Manning at Tennessee, has clearly made the right choice in which career path to follow.

The 26-year-old leads the National League in batting, slugging, on-base percentage, runs scored, hits, doubles, and total bases.

“I can’t talk enough about Todd Helton,” teammate Jeff Cirillo said. “It’s mind-boggling. You keep waiting for him to come down to earth.”

Helton is a frightening sight for pitchers. He stares them down before he even comes to the plate--standing a few feet closer to home plate than the on-deck circle. He has a straight-up stance and a high right-leg kick to time that sweet left-handed swing.

“He’s a great hitter,” Mets manager Bobby Valentine said. “He covers all pitches and all speeds. He uses all fields. He has great balance. He’s mechanically sound.”

There are few--if any--weaknesses in his swing. In Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Mets, Helton hit line drives down both foul lines and to straightaway center field.

The ability to hit any pitch to any field makes Helton impossible to defense.

“You make great pitches and the guy still hits them hard,” said Mets right-hander Bobby J. Jones, who did manage to get Helton out twice: once on a drive to the right-field wall and once a screaming liner to center field.

Jones is certainly not alone is his bewilderment. There is no easy answer to pitching to Helton.

Maybe Montreal manager Felipe Alou had it right when he said he wished Helton walked whenever he was up. Because throwing strikes sure isn’t the answer.

Helton is hitting .423 when he swings at the first pitch and a staggering .462 when he hacks at an 0-2 offering.

“The kid is swinging the bat as well as anyone I’ve ever seen,” said Rockies manager Buddy Bell, who has spent more than 30 years in professional baseball. “This is a very hard game to play and Todd Helton is making it look easy.”