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.