Looking for trouble, Colorado Rockies slugger Todd Helton walks to home plate with a bat that he carries around the same way John Wayne used to hold a gun. We're talking one tough cowboy. The point is: You don't want to mess with a true Hall of Famer. And you know it before he even pulls the trigger. There are folks in New York and Los Angeles who might not recognize it yet. But Helton is a true Hall of Famer. No doubt about it. Not that Helton would ever campaign for the honor. But pay close attention, and Helton reveals why he should be the first player from the Rockies to get inducted at Cooperstown. Some guys only want one shot to beat you, because that's all they need. What makes Helton so tough goes way beyond the .328 lifetime batting average, the 321 home runs or the three Gold Glove awards in recognition of his defensive skills. In the batting cage on a Wednesday when Helton would rip the 500th double of his brilliant career off the scoreboard in right field, Toddy Ballgame was irked with his stroke. So, in a voice that could make a grizzly bear turn tail and run, Helton turned to Colorado hitting coach Don Baylor and growled, 'If you see me drop my back shoulder, slap me.' Helton lives to hit. He is country strong. This is a body built by bologna sandwiches. The dude is about as fancy as a pickup truck. In the history of baseball in Colorado, Helton is Mr. Get R Done. 'He's the best Rockie ever to put on a uniform,' teammate Brad Hawpe said. While 500 doubles is a noteworthy milestone, what's more immediately compelling is that Helton is among the National League's top 10 hitters for average less than a month from his 36th birthday. This is an era of the game forever destined to be defined by inflated numbers and juiced players, a time when fans have trouble believing anything they see, whether it was a homer off the bat of Barry Bonds or a fastball thrown by Roger Clemens. Helton 'would be a tremendous player in any era of the history of the game, because his character comes into play,' Rockies manager Jim Tracy said. That is a polite way of describing the major difference between the cheaters and Helton. 'He has done it professionally. He has done it cleanly,' Tracy said. The legitimacy of Helton's candidacy for the Hall of Fame will be debated as a referendum on Denver's Coors Field and baseball at altitude. Here's betting some of those voters who were so blind they didn't see the influence of steroids coming have not taken one whiff of the thin air in Colorado and ignorantly dismissed all offensive numbers posted by the Rockies. Has Helton been a significantly better hitter in his home ballpark? Yes. He has hit an out-of-this-world .360 when playing on Colorado soil. But if Cincinnati first baseman Tony Perez was a Hall of Fame cog in the Big Red Machine, then Helton certainly deserves serious consideration for admittance to Cooperstown from even the harshest evaluators. Chew on these juicy career numbers by Perez: .279 batting average, .391 on-base percentage, .463 slugging. Now consider this: The road statistics of Helton beat Perez in every one of those categories. 'I grew up watching the Big Red Machine. In the case of Tony Perez or Todd Helton, they live for the big moment of the game. And not everybody can handle that,' Tracy said. What makes Beltin' Helton so Hall-worthy does not require computer analysis. It's as simply beautiful as the solo homer Helton smashed off Arizona reliever Scott Schoeneweis to break a tie in the eighth inning and give the Rockies a 4-3 victory. 'You did a great job,' Tracy told Helton after the game, then added a friendly little jab. 'You've got a future ahead of you.' With those words, Helton hit the showers, dressed, pulled on a hunter's camouflage hat, folded a piece of pizza, shoved the snack in his mouth and slipped out the clubhouse door without a sound. Mr. Get R Done was long gone. (Mark Kiszla is a sports columnist for The Denver Post. He can be reached at mkiszladenverpost.com.) 