Todd Helton got a permanent place outside Coors Field on Saturday, and he treated it the same way he handled his career: with humility.
The Rockies unveiled a statue of the Hall of Famer before their game against the Mariners, placing Helton in bronze in the pose that captured the end of Colorado’s 2007 run to the World Series. The figure shows him raising his hands to the sky after making the out that sealed the moment, and it now stands near the park’s home-plate entrance alongside Larry Walker’s statue and the long-standing statue of “The Player.”
Helton, who grew up in a humble, hard-working family in Knoxville, Tenn., said the idea of a statue still feels far removed from the kid who had to imagine the big leagues before ever seeing them.
“I never saw a professional game until I played in one,” Helton said.
The ceremony drew a large crowd outside the ballpark, and the day rolled on into first-pitch ceremonies and another loud ovation. The statue itself, created by Loveland sculptor George Lundeen, weighs 1,000 pounds and stands 17 feet tall from base to tip, with the actual trophy measuring 13 feet.
Helton used much of his roughly 13-minute speech to thank the people around him. That theme fit the way he has always viewed his career - as something built by more than one man.
“Winning with a team is something,” Helton said later. “To be able to experience that is something very special.
It’s a lot of people pulling in the right direction, and a lot of things to go right to win - especially at this level. That was big for me, because my youngest daughter was there and got to see.
“To win in the big leagues, to win with good teammates, just to see the look on your teammates’ faces and realize what y’all have done, you know you’re doing things right.”
For the Rockies, the statue is part tribute and part statement about their own history. The franchise has spent years building an identity, and Saturday’s unveiling put a spotlight on one of the best players of his era and one of the club’s defining moments.
Walker, whose statue was unveiled last month, said the permanent display means the team’s history won’t disappear when the season ends.
“It’s amazing to think about the winter months - it’s snowing out, and it’s freezing cold, and those things [the statues] are going to be standing there,” Walker said. “It’s not a seasonal baseball thing.
“Teams go through decades and decades, centuries in some cases, of not winning. It’ll happen here one day, and hopefully that happens while I’m still here, and I’ll be watching that parade - and that parade will be going by our statues.”
Clint Hurdle, who managed Helton for much of his career, said the chosen image was the right one. The moment came after Helton took a throw from Troy Tulowitzki to retire Arizona’s Eric Byrnes and set off the Rocktober celebration.
“It could have been a fly ball to center; it could have been a punchout; it wasn’t,” Hurdle said.
Hurdle also noted how quickly history can get filtered through the present.
“When you talk about a legacy or history, more often than not, it’s recency bias. It’s who’s the newest, the freshest that’s doing it today, or last year.”
“Baseball is an individual game in a lot of ways.
You stand at the plate alone.
You take the field alone.
But you never get anywhere alone.”
🫶 Todd Helton pic.twitter.com/MQiINHyo0h
- Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) September 19, 2026
Among the current Rockies, Charlie Blackmon is one of the few with deep ties to Helton. Blackmon spent his entire 14-year Major League career with Colorado and now works as a special front-office assistant.
“He was just bigger than life to be around as a teammate,” Blackmon said. “It was hard not to be a fan at the time.
And I’ve gotten to know him and I’m so happy for all the success. He did so great in his speech, and I’m very honored to be invited to be close to the ceremony.”
Blackmon was in uniform working with players before the game and later in the dugout against the Mariners.
Helton also holds a special assistant role, and he said changes in the front office, along with his Hall of Fame commitments, have taken up much of his time. Still, he said he wants to do more than stand as a bronze figure outside the stadium.
“I’m doing fine,” Helton said. “The only problem I work with is purpose.
You know, ‘What’s your purpose?’ My purpose was always to be a baseball player.
Finding another purpose is being a dad. But I need to get back to helping these young kids, helping the Rockies a little bit more.
“I kind of got sidetracked a little bit from it, but I look forward to jumping back into that.”
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