Todd Helton's Heartbreaking Moment Of Staggering Forgetfulness Leads To Walk-Off Loss

It was a bad night for Todd Helton, the cornerstone of the Rockies for 16 seasons, he of the .321 lifetime batting average and 58.7 WAR (good for 11th among active players and higher than Vlad Guerrero, Ichiro, and a slew of others you'd expect to be above Helton). But tonight in Philadelphia, when Placido Polanco came up with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth and chopped a ball to second, Todd Helton seemingly forget how to play baseball. That is to say, he forgot to put his foot on the base, the cornerstone task of a first baseman. He didn't even put up a fight when Alfonso Marquez called Polanco safe. It was hopeless by that point, and Helton knew it.

Update: Helton spoke to reporters after the game and admitted he wasn't ready for the throw and didn't have his foot on the base:

"I should still be on the bag ready, and I wasn't," Helton said. "It's a pretty bad feeling when you're trying to find the bag and the ball's coming. It was a bad situation. I should've been on the bag and it should've been an out. So, it's my fault."