Baseball Playoffs, Todd Helton

Baseball playoffs resume tonight in Arizona with the Stone's ace Jeff Francis facing off against the Snake's top dog Brandon Webb, a former NL Cy Young winner.

Nice story at the link about long time Stones firstbaseman Todd Helton, one of my favorite players. Helton suffered for a long time before playing for a winner, and had contemplated about asking for a possible trade, potentially to the Evil Sox. Helton is thrilled with the surrounding young talent like Brad Hawpe, Matt Halliday, Garrett Atkins, Troy Tulowitski and could now wind up staying for the forseeable future despite an enormous contract.

"For 1,578 games, Helton's lone view of the postseason came from the television. When the Rockies beat San Diego in a one-game playoff to capture the NL wild card, the champagne bottles Helton popped served as an apropos metaphor for himself.

"I don't think you can put it into words," Helton said. "It's kind of like somebody asking you, 'Well, how'd you feel when your first child was born?' You can throw any adjective you want out there and it's really not going to do it justice."