TUCSON — Todd Helton showed up at spring training a year ago with a bushy beard and a gloomy disposition.
The beard, looking like it belongs on a Civil War general, remains. But Helton’s mood, bolstered by the Rockies’ World Series appearance and a memorable offseason, is decidedly sunnier.
“I’ve really looked forward to this spring training,” he said Wednesday before taking his cuts in batting practice. “We’ll see how it goes, but it’s been nice so far.”
The Rockies turned the baseball world on its head with their miraculous, late-season run. And in his 10th full season in the majors, Helton finally got to play in the postseason. The sweetness of it lingers still.
“I don’t care how much you love your job, until you start accomplishing your goals, it’s not satisfying,” he said. “So what we did last season as a team was satisfying. We didn’t accomplish everything, but we accomplished a lot.”
A year ago, Helton was coming off his winter of discontent. The underachieving 2006 Rockies finished 10 games under .500. Talk of trading Helton simmered all winter until a potential deal with Boston fell apart.
But those who know Helton say the scars are fading.
“He seems like he’s in a good spot now,” teammate Matt Holliday said. “If you don’t have to deal with all the trade junk and other stuff he had to deal with last season, then it makes it all better. For Todd to come here now, and know he’s not going anywhere, and know that we’ve got a good team with a chance to win, I think that’s very different than in the past.”
Last year, Helton arrived in the desert weighing a pumped-up 225 pounds in an attempt to regain some of his lost power. This year, he weighs between 210-215 pounds.
“I did all of that work last year for a lousy 17 home runs,” Helton quipped.
He grinned as he said it and that, too, is a different Todd Helton than the one who used to get grumpy whenever a media member asked about his loss of power.
A season ago, Helton hit .320 with 91 RBIs and finished second in the National League in on-base percentage (.434). During the Rockies’ September to remember, Helton hit .390 with four homers and 20 RBIs. His two-out, two-strike, two-run walkoff homer against Dodgers closer Takashi Saito on Sept. 18 lit the Rockies’ emotional fuse for the late-season charge.
“I was talking to (Brad) Hawpe about it just the other day,” Helton said. “We were both looking back on it saying, ‘Man, we really did that?’ I’m still not sure it’s sunk in yet. But it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced.”
Helton called this past offseason the best of his career. It included time with his family, a couple of hunting trips and a trip back to his native Knoxville, Tenn., where, on Jan. 31, his No. 3 baseball jersey was retired by the University of Tennessee. Helton became the first UT baseball player to have his number retired.
“That was neat,” Helton said. “There were about 1,400 people there and they did it up right. There were a lot of my high-school teammates there, so it was a special night.”
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
