Helton to undergo back surgery Tuesday
By Tracy Ringolsby, Rocky Mountain News
Published September 24, 2008 at 4:16 p.m.
Photo by David Zalubowski/Associated Press
Rockies pitcher Taylor Buchholz, left, and first baseman Todd Helton greet fans as they take part in the walk around Coors Field to mark the final regular-season home game Sunday.
Will the Rockies’ Todd Helton be an effective first baseman again after back surgery?
Drew on Baseball
Scores and statistics
First baseman Todd Helton feels the Rockies' pain - literally and figuratively.
Helton, a focal point of the Rockies' drive to the first National League pennant in franchise history a year ago and sidelined July 3 by lower back problems, decided Wednesday to undergo arthroscopic surgery Tuesday to relieve pressure a ruptured disk has placed on a nerve, creating numbness in his left leg.
Helton traveled with the Rockies to San Francisco, where they beat the Giants on Wednesday night, but he flew to Los Angeles with trainer Keith Dugger on Wednesday morning and was examined by Dr. Robert Watkins, who will perform the surgery in Marina del Rey, Calif.
Dugger said the surgery is arthroscopic, involving an incision only 2 inches long, and that after two weeks, Helton will begin a rehabilitation program. He is expected to be ready for the start of spring training.
Helton welcomes the chance to alleviate the pain that began bothering him three years ago and caused the problems in his left leg, which led to him going on the disabled list in July.
"Mentally," Helton said, "it has been a train wreck."
The Rockies took a conservative approach in treating Helton, trying to avoid surgery, but three times his comeback was thwarted by a flare-up when he started swinging a bat, the most recent time a week ago.
"Dr. Watkins said if he was talking about someone in the general public, he would continue the rehab work and there might be a recurrence (of the nerve problem) once in a while," Dugger said. "With Todd and the athletic demands, a more aggressive approach was needed."
Helton, 35, said he can deal with pain, but the numbness in his leg was too big an issue to ignore.
"If I can get the nerve part fixed, I can deal with everything else," he said. "It was the pain down the leg that got to me."
This has been a troubling time for Helton, who says the expectations others have for him pale compared with what he expects from himself. The highest-paid player in franchise history wants to earn the $52.3 million in guaranteed salary he has coming the next three seasons.
"Now that I know what can happen, I can focus on all the little things needed to make sure we keep it under control," he said.
Dugger said "a key for us will be to make sure physical fatigue does not set in. There are daily experiences he will have to do at least for the rest of his career."
The big thing for Helton is getting the Rockies back on track. After nine years of failure, last season was the most enjoyable of his sports career.
The Rockies steadily improved during the season, then won 14 of their final 15 regular-season games, including an NL wild-card tiebreaker against San Diego, to get to the postseason.
Then came sweeps of Philadelphia in three games in an NL Division Series and Arizona in four games in the NL Championship Series before the Rockies were swept by Boston in the World Series.
This season has been worse than Helton could have imagined. The Rockies stumbled, then found themselves arriving in San Francisco looking to save face. Helton never got into an offensive groove, and he blames himself for the sluggish Rockies offense.
His season will end with a .264 average, seven home runs and 29 RBI in 83 games, including two September pinch-hit appearances in which he struck out.
Those are not Helton-like numbers.
In his prime, Helton had six consecutive seasons of 30-plus home runs and seven consecutive seasons of 95-plus RBI. He never hit below .300 in his first 10 full seasons and he entered this year with a .332 career average, 303 home runs and 1,087 RBI.
"It has been frustrating to know I haven't been able to help," Helton said. "The team is not winning, so I want to be out there helping it do better. I haven't done my part."
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September 24, 2008
5:58 p.m.
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1somelikeithot writes:
I wish Todd the very best. I'm sure he does feel somewhat guilty for taking all that money and not being able to perform and help his team. But, he shouldn't feel that the loosing season is all on him. It's a 25 man roster and everyone has to do their part. I feel for him, I too suffer from severe disk problems. Although I don't have the kind of money he has, it's still hard not being able to physically do the things you love to do, and I hope he can get though this. It doesn't matter whether your rich or not, having back issures affects your whole way of life. Good luck to you Todd, hope to see you on the field in 2009.
September 24, 2008
11:32 p.m.
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RDenver writes:
I had the same surgery and it worked for me. Of course I wasn't playing first base for 162 games. In fact I wasn't playing baseball at all! Hope it goes well. We need a healthy 1st baseman who will be replacing Atkins after he is traded.
September 25, 2008
12:45 a.m.
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LeftyDv writes:
Todd Helton should give the Rockies a refund. 52 million in three years will be over 17 million per year. I'm sure he could renegotiate for 8-10 million and free up some money to keep Holliday. How about it, Todd? If you love the Rockies and the fans and all that lot, how about take away the financial burder and let your team compete again.
September 25, 2008
7:25 a.m.
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fjv1026 writes:
I love Helton as much as anybody but I totally agree with LeftyDv. Todd should restructure his contract so that the Rockies don't have to make the difficult decisions that are forthcoming. Of course, it never works that way (except with Elway and Sakic) so the easy thing to do is to eat Helton's contract at a 100 games/12 HR / $17 mil per year and trade away our young talent. This will also leave enough money to give Livan Hernandez a fat frontline starter's contract extension (he hasn't lost in the last two starts, after all) and maybe even sign former Rockie Jason Jennings to a fat free agent contract. See? Even I could be the GM/owner of the Rockies!!!
September 25, 2008
7:43 a.m.
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1somelikeithot writes:
You people need to give it a rest. Do you really think the player's union would let any player give back money on a guaranteed contract? Helton has earned that money for the great career he's had. If you got a big fat raise for all your years of hard work would you give it back! This falls on the powers that be for negotiating a contract like that in the first place. Don't ever expect a player to "refund" his money once it's a done deal. To lay all this on Helton is unfair and totally ridiculous.
September 25, 2008
10:36 a.m.
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mkcampin2 writes:
todd helton...
he has earned his contract and his career numbers are unbelievable.
just look at his career statistics. sure he wont come close to the power numbers he once put up, but when he is healthy he has put his numbers up there with the best of them. as a matter of fact
it will be hard to find a 1st baseman besides pujols,in the last 50 years who could do it all like helton can,,defense,hitting etc.... if he continues to play at a high level for 3 more years,
the hall will call.
career slugging % .577 carrer on base % .430 just insane #,s...
carre batting avg .328
HELTON COME BACK STRONG
September 25, 2008
10:42 a.m.
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NorCalGuy writes:
Agree with 1somelikeithot, take it easy. The contract he got was for previous performance and projected future performance. That's about ten great seasons and some his early contracts were terrible just like eveyone else who has to pay their MLB dues. The reward was the 9 year $141.5 million contract and 5 of those years were outstanding. I'd give him a mulligan for this past season and hope he can bounce back. He'll know fairly quickly if he can endure the rigors of being an every day position player again. My mom had two disks in her back cause the same numbness in her legs. She chose not to have the surgery, it's very painful and can be psychologically debilitating. What I hope for Mr. Helton is that he can still have a reasonable life after baseball and play with his kids. Good luck Todd.
September 25, 2008
10:55 a.m.
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SBdoc writes:
1somelikeithot writes:
"Helton has earned that money for the great career he's had. If you got a big fat raise for all your years of hard work would you give it back! This falls on the powers that be for negotiating a contract like that in the first place."
I hope you all remember this when Rockies' management balks at offering their young studs long term, no trade contracts. Wealthy owners, the baseball union, and greedy agents have ruined baseball.
September 25, 2008
12:41 p.m.
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1somelikeithot writes:
SBdoc you are absolutely correct when you say wealthy owners, baseball union and greedy agents have ruined baseball. The point I was trying to make was that people seem to insinuate that Helton some how is the one being greedy and ruining this teams chances of resigning Holliday. Helton doesn't have anything to do with that and he shouldn't bare the burden. He's earned his pay. Helton's a standup guy. People should be supportive in his effort to get healthy and be out there on the field instead of tearing the guy down.
September 25, 2008
2:39 p.m.
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LeftyDv writes:
1somelikeithot writes:
You people need to give it a rest. Do you really think the player's union would let any player give back money on a guaranteed contract? Helton has earned that money for the great career he's had. If you got a big fat raise for all your years of hard work would you give it back! This falls on the powers that be for negotiating a contract like that in the first place. Don't ever expect a player to "refund" his money once it's a done deal. To lay all this on Helton is unfair and totally ridiculous.
My response to it would be this. If Todd Helton is the loyal, die-hard Rockies firstbasemen the media and fans portray him to be, he would attempt to make this decision. Maybe the union wouldn't allow it. But let's see him take the initiative. If he truly wanted to win in this market and with this set of guys, he would not stand idle as Holliday and Atkins are lost to big contracts elsewhere.
And I don't expect Helton to refund his money. He did earn it. I certainly wouldn't give mine back. But nobody paints me out to be the loyal company man who puts his company before himself either.
September 25, 2008
4:25 p.m.
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fjv1026 writes:
I absolutely agree with LeftyDv. Helton hasn't even SUGGESTED that he would be willing to give back money or even restructure his contract the way Elway did year after year to help the Broncos field a competitive team (because of a salary cap).
Please don't misconstrue my message. Todd Helton is to the Rockies what Elway and Sakic are to our other teams but something has to give. He is portrayed as a "team first" guy and seems to love the guys he plays with but he's willing to sit back on the DL or hit singles/doubles for $17 million per and say "I love you Holliday and Garrett but go make money elsewhere"? Not very "team first" if you ask me.
September 25, 2008
6:14 p.m.
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1somelikeithot writes:
Lefty and fjv, I understand your frustration. I don't want Holliday and Atkins to leave the team either. But, realisticaly, this is the nature of the business. Also, we don't know what Helton is feeling or thinking. At least, I don't. I do know this, a player has to look out for himself, owners don't because players are just a commodity to them. I don't believe Helton is "willing" to sit back on the DL. He's tried everything he can to get better and get back to playing. Now he's decided to have the surgery and I for one am hoping this helps him. I don't know if either of you have had serious back problems, it's not that easy to work through and he obviously has tried. Let's just wait and see how this surgery goes for him and if it makes him feel better. If it works, hopefully he'll be the player he can be and we'll all be happy.
September 25, 2008
7:31 p.m.
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fjv1026 writes:
Good points somelikeit...you're right. The players are commodities to the owners (especially guys like the Monforts who really don't know how to own a sports team). I hope everything works out for the good of the fans.