CrowdStrike issues shrink Todd Helton's Hall of Fame entourage | Rockies notebook

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. - The CrowdStrike issues extended to the Hall of Fame.

A faulty update caused 8.5 million Windows devices to crash and left with it the wake of canceled flights, banking issues, and a lesser crowd than expected for Todd Helton’s — and the three other inductees, for that matter — weekend.

Troy Tulowitzki and Clint Barmes were among the former teammates who reached out to Helton. They were caught up in the travel issues and couldn’t find a new way to come. For others, like the first baseman’s high school coach Bud Bales, his former teammates drove from Knoxville to ensure the skipper, and his dugout mates, didn’t miss it.

“Quite a few of them didn’t make it because of the flights,” Helton said. “That was disappointing. Some of them sat in airports for 16 hours to get here, and some of them ditched the airport, rented a car and drove their butts all the way up here.

“I’m very appreciative of that — that means the world to me.”

Matt Holliday, Ben Petrick, Brad Hawpe, Matt Belisle and others still made it. Helton’s 12 high school teammates and six to seven college teammates made it, too.

Colorado’s party on Saturday night will reunite the former teammates and friends. Flight issues cut into the number that was originally going to reach “around 300.”

Martha, Helton's mother, was able to fight through to attending too after an early-week spill. She fell in her home earlier this week and hit her head but will be in Cooperstown after being "bandaged up."

Fellow inductee Adrian Beltré’s time against the Rockies wasn’t fun

The Dodgers and Rockies are a franchise at different ends of the spectrum and Adrian Beltré’s battles against Helton are memories the latter doesn’t enjoy.

Colorado and Los Angeles met 251 times in Helton’s 17-year career. He hit .289 in that span but the Rockies went 119-154 from his debut in 1997 to retirement after 2013.

The game’s greatest players like Beltré played a role.

“I remember they beat our butts,” Helton said. “You knew (Beltré) was a Hall of Famer from an early age. He was a heck of a third baseman and obviously could hit. I think the biggest thing that stands out with Adrian is he had fun playing the game, he was a clown and he joked around, even with the other team.”

Beltré played with the Dodgers for seven years of his 21-year career before eight with Texas, five with Seattle and a year in Boston.

St. Paul's Hall of Fame pipeline expanding

The population of St. Paul, Minnesota, is a hair over 300,000 but the city's Hall of Fame roots will grow again on Sunday.

Joe Mauer played for the hometown Minnesota Twins for all of his 15-year career, just like Helton's 17 in Colorado.

Fellow St. Paul natives Dave Winfield (2001), Paul Molitor (2004) and Jack Morris (2018) await him among Cooperstown's collection of plaques. He was given a taste of the museum in 2004 when the Twins played the Atlanta Braves in the Hall of Fame Game.

He held Ted Williams and Babe Ruth's bats as part of the club's behind-the-scenes tour.

His Minnesota roots cemented his dream of being there one day, bust and all.

“Minnesota isn't the first state that would come to mind with big league ballplayers, but we’ve had some really good ones,” Mauer told KARE 11 in Minnesota. “As a kid growing up in St. Paul, watching three guys play at the highest level – winning championships and doing some special things in the game – made me dream and made me say that this could become a reality.”

Sunday, it will.