The Rockies have completed a three-statue display at Coors Field’s main entrance at 20th and Blake with the unveiling of a 17-foot, 1,000-pound bronze Todd Helton figure. The statue was revealed Saturday before Colorado played the Seattle Mariners, according to The Denver Post.
The figure shows Helton at first base during the play that ended Colorado’s 2007 National League Championship Series and sent the team to the World Series. His daughter, Gentry Grace, unveiled it, and more than 500 people attended the ceremony, The Post reported.
A three-statue entrance display
Helton’s monument now stands with Larry Walker’s statue and the Player statue, which has been outside Coors Field since 1995, The Denver Post reported. George and Mark Lundeen of Loveland-based Lundeen Sculptures created the Helton figure, according to Yahoo Sports.
Walker’s statue was unveiled Aug. 23 at the same 20th-and-Blake entrance. The Denver Gazette reported that the figure is 15 feet tall and weighs 800 pounds, making it the first statue of a Rockies player at the stadium. Walker played 17 major-league seasons, entered the Hall of Fame in 2020 and finished with a .313 batting average, 383 home runs and 1,311 RBIs, according to The Denver Gazette.
A changing Ballpark neighborhood
The display is located in a neighborhood shaped in part by the ballpark’s presence. According to the City and County of Denver’s Northeast Downtown Neighborhoods Plan, Ballpark is a designated Landmark district that has undergone extensive redevelopment since Coors Field opened in 1995. The plan also says the stadium draws millions of local and out-of-town visitors to the surrounding area.
Helton’s Colorado record
Helton spent all 17 of his major-league seasons with Colorado and finished with 369 home runs and a .316 batting average, Yahoo Sports reported. The Post also listed 2,519 hits, 1,406 RBIs, 1,401 runs, 592 doubles, 998 extra-base hits, 4,292 total bases and 1,335 walks in 2,246 games.
He made five All-Star teams, won three Gold Gloves and four Silver Slugger awards, had his No. 17 retired in 2014 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2024, according to The Denver Post. The newspaper reported that Walker called Helton the franchise’s captain and that Helton described his Hall of Fame induction and stadium statue as the ultimate honor.
The Rockies also distributed statue replicas to the first 15,000 fans at each corresponding unveiling game, according to Yahoo Sports and The Denver Post. The Helton ceremony added a major public commemoration to the stadium during a difficult season, The Post reported.
