Tommy Helms Was Pete Rose's Right-Hand Man, Joins His Teammate in Death

The native of Charlotte, North Carolina was three weeks short of his 85th birthday. He suffered from several ailments and showed signs of dementia when he passed.

It was the presence of Helms, who broke in as a third baseman, while Rose manned second base. that prompted manager Dave Bristol to move Helms to second base while Rose moved to left field in the 1967 season.

Helms played eight of his 14 big league seasons with the Reds. He hit .269 in a Reds’ uniform with 145 doubles, 12 triples, 18 home runs, and drove in 274 runs. He was an All-Star in 1967 and 1968 and received a vote for the MVP award in 1968.

His .288 batting average that year was his career-high as a qualifier.

Helms was a key player on the Reds’ 1970 National League champion team. He was traded after the 1971 season along with Lee May and Jimmy Stewart to the Houston Astros for Joe Morgan, Jack Billingham, Cesar Geronimo, and Denis Menke.

He played for Houston, Pittsburgh, and briefly in Boston, ending his playing days in 1977. He made his permanent home in Cincinnati, returning as a coach in 1983, under native Cincinnatian Russ Nixon and Vern Rapp. His buddy Rose made him his bench coach and he took over for Rose, who was suspended for 30 days for bumping into umpire Dave Pallone. When Rose was suspended for gambling, Helms became the interim manager.

Current Reds’ manager, Terry Francona, was with the 1987 Reds with Helms as coach.

“He was the bench coach here and Pete’s right-hand man,” Francona recalled. “It’s funny because I was thinking the other day about, hoping to run into Tommy one of these days. He was really fun to be around. It was kind of a kick in the stomach. I just found out about it after the game Sunday.

Was he a no-nonsense kind of guy?

“No he had a lot of nonsense,” Francona said. “He was colorful.”