Charlotte’s Tommy Helms kept promise to ‘get bigger,’ make it to pro baseball

A 16-year-old Tommy Helms told a Charlotte Observer reporter in 1957 that “maybe if I could get a little bigger, I could make it” in professional baseball.

Helms got a little bigger. And he made a career of professional baseball.

Helms, a Charlotte native who had a 14-year Major League Baseball career and managed in the minors and major leagues, died Sunday in Cincinnati. He was 83.

No cause of death was given by family members.

Helms was National League Rookie of the Year in 1966, a two-time All-Star, and a two-time Gold Glove fielding award winner.

He also played a part of baseball trivia, as the person who followed Pete Rose as manager of the Reds.

Helms was a standout at in the late 1950s at West Mecklenburg High and with the Paw Creek American League team. He was a slick-fielding shortstop whose American Legion coach, Fred Severs, said “was one of the best players I’ve seen.”

Despite his size (5-10, 150 pounds), Helms also was a good power hitter.

The Cincinnati Reds noticed, signing him to a contract a short time after Helms’ 18th birthday. He played two seasons with Palatka in the Class D Florida League, then made steady progress up the Reds’ minor league system, to Topeka in Class B; Macon in Class A; and then to the Triple-A San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League.

The Reds called him up briefly late in the 1964 and ‘65 seasons, and Helms, now a 165-pounder, vowed to The Observer after his August 1965 call-up that he planned to stay in the majors.

He kept that promise, playing full-time with the Reds from 1966 to 1971. He batted .284 in his rookie-of-the year season in 1966 and hit .288 in 1968. He was named to the National League All-Star teams in 1967 and ‘68 and won Gold Glove fielding awards in 1970 and ‘71.

Helms later played with the Houston Astros, Pittsburgh Pirates and Boston Red Sox before retiring in 1977.

After a brief foray into the catering business, Helms landed a job as a coach with the Texas Rangers in 1981 and ‘82, then joined the Reds as a coach in 1983. In April 1988, Reds manager Pete Rose was suspended 30 days for bumping an umpire. Helms took over, guiding the Reds to a 12-15 record.

Then in August 1989, Rose resigned as Reds manager after allegations surfaced that he had bet on baseball games. Once again, Helms took over, and the Reds were 16-21 under his direction. Cincinnati hired Lou Piniella as manager in 1990, and Helms came back to Charlotte, serving as manager of the Charlotte Knights for a season.

He dealt with the tragedy of seeing his sons, Tommy Jr. and Ryan, die within a few months of each other in 2014. Both had played baseball in the minor leagues.

Helms moved back to Cincinnati and in recent years had been a regular at Reds public functions.

In 1983, he told The Observer that baseball was a fountain of youth.

“When you’re around the game, you just don’t feel so old,” Helms said.

He was named to the Reds’ Hall of Fame in 1979, the Charlotte Sports Hall of Fame in 1983, and was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.

He was survived by his wife of 34 years, Cathy.