Todd Helton:A Dying Breed
May 24th 2009 04:14
Congratulations to former Vols baseball and football player Todd Helton. He collected his 2,000th hit of his career earlier this week. He also has 300 home runs, multiple Gold Glove and All Star selections, to go along with numerous other awards in his thirteen year career.
One of his lesser talked about accomplishments is also one that is becoming rarer and rarer in professional baseball. He has spent his entire career with one team. Only nine other Major Leaguers can claim this honor. Lance Berkman, Eric Chavez, Roy Halladay,Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Jason Varitek, and Vernon Wells all have been in the league for at least nine years and played for the same team.
Before free agency and corporate owned teams it was common to grow old with your favorite player. Now its not uncommon to see a complete roster turnover every few years. It might be good for uniform sales, but in my opinion its not good for the game. How can you claim a player as one of your team's greats when he has played for five other teams?
One of his lesser talked about accomplishments is also one that is becoming rarer and rarer in professional baseball. He has spent his entire career with one team. Only nine other Major Leaguers can claim this honor. Lance Berkman, Eric Chavez, Roy Halladay,Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Jason Varitek, and Vernon Wells all have been in the league for at least nine years and played for the same team.
Before free agency and corporate owned teams it was common to grow old with your favorite player. Now its not uncommon to see a complete roster turnover every few years. It might be good for uniform sales, but in my opinion its not good for the game. How can you claim a player as one of your team's greats when he has played for five other teams?
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