Todd Helton's hall of fame baseball career a tribute to what he learned in Knoxville

Todd Helton donned his uniform hours before his youth baseball game started.

Baseball was in his thoughts, but it wasn’t the first thing on the schedule. Helton and his father, Jerry, headed for Lake Loudon to go fishing with Todd in full uniform. They fished until game time neared then Jerry cruised in on his beloved boat to dock at Concord Park.

Todd Helton hopped off, trotted to the fields, played ball, and returned back to the boat for more fishing.

“I am just a redneck from Tennessee who liked to fish and definitely loved to play baseball,” Todd Helton said. “It was a perfect day. It couldn’t have gotten any better for me as a 10-year-old.”

Todd Helton’s track to baseball immortality in Cooperstown blossomed on days like that in Knoxville.

He hammered baseballs on youth fields from Farragut to Fountain City, became a legend at Knoxville Central, and achieved superstardom as a Tennessee baseball two-way terror. He carried people and lessons from East Tennessee with him as a foundation on his way to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, where he will be enshrined Sunday.

The father's words that mattered most for a young Todd Helton

Todd Helton was 8 years old when his dad made a statement that stuck with him through the next 10 years.

You are special as a baseball player, Jerry Helton told his son.

“He wasn’t one to hand out compliments,” Todd Helton said.

Those concise and precise words struck a chord with the budding baseball phenom — and they stuck. Jerry Helton, who died in 2015 at 65, was hard on his three kids, including Todd. Being told he was special was an unexpected boost.

He played machine pitch at the ball fields in Sequoyah Hills. He honed his skills at Concord Park and Bower Field in South Knoxville. He remembered his father’s words through those years in his development. If he was facing an 0-2 count, it didn’t matter. Special players aren’t bothered.

Two more pieces of Jerry Helton’s advice propelled Todd.

He was frustrated in the backseat of the car after going 1-for-3 in a game as a 12-year-old. His dad told him going 1-for-3 forever gets a player in the hall of fame.

Todd Helton got another push forward amid his early nerve-field days in high school. Scouts filled the stands and he sweated their presence. His dad, who played two minor-league seasons with the Minnesota Twins, stepped in.

"He was able to ease that tension," Todd Helton said. “I didn’t really care anymore. I went out and played with no pressure on me.”

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High school lessons taught Todd Helton to handle the spotlight for a career

Jerry Helton helped Helton maneuver his emotions around being watched by professional teams. Bud Bales, Helton’s coach at Central, taught him how to interact respectfully and maturely with the scouts.

Todd Helton was molded in high school into a player and person equipped for the spotlight he would be in for the following 20 years of his life. Jerry Helton was strict. Bales was strict in a different way.

“It was something that opened my eyes to not only how I can conduct myself on the field but off the field and around the baseball park,” Todd Helton said.

Helton played for Bales for four seasons. He learned how to handle the moment each step of the way. Bales preached being steady with people. He provided structure to all his players and Helton craved it.

It came at the perfect time, too. Helton was a local legend already for his two-sport stardom in baseball and football. The lessons in high school prepared him for being known at Tennessee — both as a Vols quarterback and a baseball icon.

Bales also complemented a Jerry Helton lesson. Helton credits his father with instilling the work ethic he carried through his career. He attributes the challenge of how much work it was going to take to reach the major leagues to Bales.

“God puts people in your life that guide and direct you,” Helton said.

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A pregame prayer became habit for a teenage Todd Helton

Helton hadn’t given a lot of thought to prayer and baseball.

He played for the Knoxville Stars summer ball team throughout high school and that changed. The team prayed prior to each game, repeating the Lord’s prayer as a group at the prod of coach Mark Rouse.

Helton thought it was a great idea. He adopted his own prayer pattern. He prayed before every game the rest of his career, carrying it from high school to Tennessee to Colorado. He never asked God for hits. He never made requests for success.

"Basically, I thanked God for the opportunity,” Helton said.

Helton’s prayer included protection for his teammates and himself on the field. The rest? Those words of supplication will eternally be kept between Helton and God.

The man in the Tennessee batting cages with Todd Helton

Helton got some of the best hitting advice from hitting master Tony Gwynn. He found wisdom from talking to Dave Winfield, who suggested Helton keep a journal of his at-bats.

His go-to hitting help was not a hall of famer. It was Bill Mosiello, who was Tennessee’s hitting coach on Rod Delmonico’s staff in 1993-94 in Helton’s first two seasons.

Helton leaned on Mosiello as he played both sports at Tennessee. He squeezed in batting practice as often as possible. He snuck out of football practices during individual work by running into the indoor facility hidden among the specialists leaving the main practice field. He shed his football pads, changed and went to hit with Mosiello.

He is sure that Vols quarterbacks coach David Cutcliffe and coach Phillip Fulmer knew what he was doing. He’s confident they knew that his future was in baseball — and they let it happen as Peyton Manning became the quarterback for the Vols and Helton became the No. 8 pick in the 1995 MLB Draft by the Colorado Rockies.

That bond with Mosiello lingered into pro ball as Helton called Mosiello throughout his career when he was feeling off at the plate or in a slump.

How Todd Helton honed his beautiful left-handed swing

The boat that Helton and his dad went fishing on served as a key part of Helton’s hitting progression.

The fiberglass boat was in the garage at the Helton family to the right of where Helton took batting practice into a fishing net. If he pulled the ball, he would hit the boat. He learned to take the ball the other way.

The fundamentals of the swing that generated a .316 batting average and more than 2,500 hits started in that garage. His dad pounded the approach of swing quick, not hard. Don’t slap the ball the other way, drive it. Hit the ball hard instead of far.

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“I think you have to keep it simple with a baseball swing with a ball coming in 98 miles per hour,” Helton said.

Helton never stopped loving hitting doubles the other way. He has the most doubles (592) in MLB history for any player who played less than 18 seasons. In the minors, he got in a habit to make sure he got the middle-out pitches he sought. He would try to pull a ball as far as he could in the first game of a series. He wanted a team to know what he could do — then he got the pitches he wanted.

It worked. It worked so well that Helton is going into the National Baseball Hall of Fame at last. He swung his way there from 200-foot little league fields in Knoxville to the largest cathedrals of the baseball world.

After it all, one of his dearest memories remains as simple as his swing: any day filled with two pastimes — fishing and baseball.

Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @ ByMikeWilson . If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Todd Helton's hall of fame baseball career a tribute to what he learned in Knoxville