Baseball BeatJuly 16, 2003
Todd Helton: Why Don't We Do It (on) the Road?
By Rich Lederer

"Why don't we do it in the road?
No one will be watching us.
Why don't we do it in the road?"

--John Lennon/Paul McCartney
The Beatles (The White Album)

Watching the All-Star game on Tuesday night, I heard Fox play-by-play announcer Joe Buck make the following comment about Todd Helton during his first at bat: "He does it at home. He does it on the road."

For the record, a check of Helton's home/road splits this year suggests otherwise:

Overall	 AB   R   H  2B  3B  HR RBI  BB   AVG   OBP   SLG    OPS
Home	195  57  77  19   3  16  52  31  .395  .478  .769  1.247
Road	163  30  48  13   1   5  26  30  .294  .399  .479   .878

Lest someone thinks 2003 is too small of a sample, here are Helton's home/road splits for 2000-2003:

Overall	AB    R   H  2B  3B  HR RBI  BB   AVG   OBP   SLG    OPS
Home	962 269 372  91   9  77 253 167  .387  .477  .740  1.218
Road	894 144 257  66   5  44 158 152  .287  .391  .520   .911

Sorry Joe, but Helton is a substantially superior hitter at home than on the road. In fact, Todd Helton is better than Babe Ruth when he plays at home and is Mo Vaughn when he plays on the road.

Helton's home stats:

	 AVG	 OBP	 SLG	  OPS
Helton	.387	.477	.740	1.218
Ruth	.342	.474	.690	1.164

Helton's road stats:

	 AVG	 OBP	 SLG	  OPS
Helton	.287	.391	.520	 .911
Vaughn	.294	.384	.526	 .910

The bottom line: If Helton were allowed to play all of his games at Coors Field, he would be the best hitter of all time. Conversely, if Helton had to play all of his games on the road, he would be reduced to being an All-Star type caliber player at best rather than Babe Ruth on steroids.