Helling’s Service To Baseball World Continues
Rick Helling has come a long way since making his Major Leage debut 30 years ago with the Texas Rangers. The North Dakota native began a baseball journey that continues to this day when he was signed by the Rangers as the 22nd selection of the first round of the 1992 MLB June Amateur Draft out of Stanford University.
The dedication and hard work that led to a successful 12-year MLB career and two World Series rings is evident today as Helling serves as a tireless advocate for active big leaguers in his role working for the Major League Baseball Players Association.
Helling’s path to Major League stardom was not a typical one. A self-described football fanatic, he spent 1989 as a redshirt freshman on the University of North Dakota football team. He left UND after one semester to play baseball with a former Fargo, North Dakota American Legion teammate at Kishwaukee College in Illinois. After two years at Kishwaukee, Helling starred for one season at Stanford before being drafted by the Rangers.
After pitching in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Helling made his professional baseball debut with Port Charlotte of the Florida State League. He played parts of four seasons for the Oklahoma City 89ers on his path to becoming a starter at the Major League level.
Helling was named American Association Pitcher of the Year in 1996 after posting a 12-4 record and 2.96 ERA for the 89ers. He pitched a perfect game on August 13, 1996, at All Sports Stadium in a 4-0 win over Nashville.
A plaque commemorating Rick Helling’s perfect game for the OKC 89ers hangs in the Volney Meece Press Box at the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.
When asked about his perfect game memories, Helling says he feels he did not necessarily have his best stuff on that night.
“I feel that I did not pitch as well as I had in the previous couple of games,” Helling said.
“I had been on a dominant run where I had been striking out a lot of guys and not giving up many hits and I did not get a lot of strikeouts (four) in that game. There was a lot of weak contact and balls put in play and as the game went on, I realized I had not given up any hits. It felt good to finish it off.”
Helling finished with a 93-81 record in 12 Major League seasons with five teams. His best season was 1998 when he finished with a 20-7 record with 164 strikeouts for the Rangers.
Always a fan favorite with the Rangers, Helling attended all of Texas’ World Series games at Globe Life Field last year and was thrilled to see the team he pitched for in the postseason twice bring home the title.
In his role with the MLBPA, Helling relishes his role in advocating for rights for active players.
“My role is to be around to help players and help educate them to understand their rights on the business side, health care, pensions and all those types of things,” Helling said.
“Just being there as a sounding board and someone the guys know they can trust is important. I have helped players throughout the years with all kinds of things, it has really been a rewarding job.”
Like the Rookie League Foundation’s mission of increasing baseball participation opportunities to Oklahoma youth, Helling says the MLPA is committed to spreading opportunities for youth to play baseball in the United States and throughout the world.
As for his memories of Oklahoma, Helling says the best was meeting his wife, Tomasa in Tulsa while playing for the Drillers in 1993.
Helling, who coached high school football for many years in Minnetonka, still has a passion for his once chosen sport of preference. Interestingly, he says he became an Oklahoma Sooner football fan growing up in North Dakota while watching the dominant teams of the early and mid-1980s on television. Helling was particularly a fan of the always colorful All American linebacker Brian Bosworth.
With two nephews playing big time college football this fall, Helling is paying close attention to the fortunes of a couple of Big 12 schools. Namdi Obiazor is a senior All-Big 12 linebacker at TCU and his brother, Chiddi Obiazor, is a redshirt freshman defensive end at Kansas State. Luckily for Helling, those teams do not face each other in regular season play.