Todd Helton’s Final Hit At Coors Field

Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

The towering home run to right field, complete with bat flip, fist pump, and curtain call, will always be the lasting image from Todd Helton‘s final game at Coors Field.

While it would have been sweet if his second hit, a line drive to left field, had been a foot higher and had gone over the fence for a second home run on the night, it ended up being fitting that Helton’s final hit at his home stadium was…

…a double. #592 of his career.

It started as so many of Helton’s career hits did: with a sound, solid swing that swatted the ball towards the left center field gap. Helton made his career on that hit just as much, if not more, than he did with home runs over the scoreboard in right field. Then it ended in a way hardly any of Helton’s career hits did; with him having to bust it to beat a throw and with a head first slide under the tag of Dustin Pedroia.

So yea, a second home run with a second curtain call would have been great. But in a way this is more fitting; it was a hardworking double for a hardworking player who will always be remembered for hitting a bunch of doubles.

One final note: this puts Helton within two of 1,000 extra-base hits for his career. It will be tough sledding at Dodgers Stadium this weekend, but it would sure be sweet if he could get to that mark and add one more feather to his cap before his career is done. In some ways this weekend will feel like an anti-climactic ending, but that possibility definitely gives us a little something to cheer for in the Toddfather’s final three games.