Todd Helton can hardly believe it’s been 10 years since his Colorado Rockies went on one of the greatest runs in baseball history.
“Time flies,” Helton said Friday night at Coors Field. “When they called and told me about the reunion, I couldn’t believe that it’d been 10 years.”
2017 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Colorado Rockies’ magical run to the franchise’s first and only National League pennant.
The streak, known as ‘Rocktober,’ was an impeccable run by the Rockies in which they won 21 one their final 22 games, including the infamous game 163 against the Padres, to sneak into the postseason and eventually make it all the way to the World Series in dominant fashion.
The streak remains one of the greatest and most epic winning periods for any team in the sport and is the most historic tale in the history of the franchise.
Friday the Rockies welcomed back members of the legendary 2007 club for a reunion almost 10 years to the day of the start of their historic run.
Helton, the anchor of 2007 club and the greatest player in the history of the franchise, took a trip down memory lane to recall his thoughts on the exhilarating time that turned the Mile High City into a baseball hotspot.
“Thinking back, it was a great time in all of our lives. To see the guys faces, it’s always good to see the guys again. We were such a tight-knit group of guys. We see them, and we don’t skip a beat. It’s just like when we were playing 10 years ago.”
People point to many different reasons why the Rockies were able to do what they did a decade ago, but the Toddfather was firm in his stance that the club’s success stemmed from everyone playing at that time. No one player was bigger than the next; it was a team an effort.
“We just got hot. It wasn’t one person, it wasn’t two people, it was all 25 of us. It took all 25 of us to pull it off.”
What a time it was for those Colorado Rockies. The run holds a special place in the hearts of all the Rockies faithful, and will always be a defining moment for the franchise.
Instead of mashing home runs, Helton now lives back home in Tennessee, picking up his kids from school, playing golf and serving as the director of player development at his Almer Mater, the University of Tennessee.
