Remembering 2025’s Losses: Tommy Helms
By Four Walls
@FourWalls (83850)
United States
January 10, 2026 11:39am CST
Today is your worst nightmare: sports! 
(Sorry, Eva, you can’t run to the no-football-room and escape this one, because it’s baseball! ) The first of five baseball players to be remembered from 2025 shows up today. This one was personal.
Tommy Helms
The Big Red Machine. It was the perfect era to be a Cincinnati Reds baseball fan. And, as a kid, I was! (I still am, sort of.) They were the beasts of the National League West in the 70s. (No, I never understood WHY a team from Cincinnati was in the NL west division, while teams geographically WEST of Cincinnati, St. Louis and Chicago, were in the NL east. 
Probably explains why Americans are so bad at geography. )
There are names that even non-sports fans know from that era: Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, and Joe Morgan. There were other people on those teams that aren’t household names around the country, but that we Reds fans fondly remember. Tommy Helms was one of them.
Tommy Helms had a few quirks in his career. One was having to take leave from the Marine Corps Reserves to play in the All-Star Game in 1967. Another was that he hit a whopping ONE home run for the entire 1970 season, but it happened to be the first home run hit in the newly-opened Riverfront Stadium on July 1, 1970.
Helms had the unfortunate position of being the bench coach for the Reds during the tumultuous period in 1988-89 when manager Pete Rose was under investigation for betting on baseball. When Rose’s ban from baseball was announced in August 1989, Helms was moved to interim manager. The bittersweet story is that he wasn’t allowed to become the full-time manager for the 1990 season, the year that the Reds went wire-to-wire in first place and won their most recent World Series with a four-game sweep over the Oakland A’s.
Yes, it’s a personal loss. Another part of the childhood of listening to games on the transistor radio and rooting for the Reds has gone. Helms wasn’t national Hall of Fame worthy, but he certainly made an indelible mark on Big Red Machine history.
Tommy Helms
Born Tommy Vann Helms, May 5, 1941, Charlotte, North Carolina
Died April 13, 2025, Cincinnati, Ohio (unknown cause) (age 83)
HALL OF FAME: Cincinnati Reds (1979); North Carolina Sports, (2013)
The tribute to Helms that ran at Great American Ball Park:
(Sorry, Eva, you can’t run to the no-football-room and escape this one, because it’s baseball! ) The first of five baseball players to be remembered from 2025 shows up today. This one was personal.
Tommy Helms
The Big Red Machine. It was the perfect era to be a Cincinnati Reds baseball fan. And, as a kid, I was! (I still am, sort of.) They were the beasts of the National League West in the 70s. (No, I never understood WHY a team from Cincinnati was in the NL west division, while teams geographically WEST of Cincinnati, St. Louis and Chicago, were in the NL east. Probably explains why Americans are so bad at geography. )
There are names that even non-sports fans know from that era: Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, and Joe Morgan. There were other people on those teams that aren’t household names around the country, but that we Reds fans fondly remember. Tommy Helms was one of them.
Tommy Helms had a few quirks in his career. One was having to take leave from the Marine Corps Reserves to play in the All-Star Game in 1967. Another was that he hit a whopping ONE home run for the entire 1970 season, but it happened to be the first home run hit in the newly-opened Riverfront Stadium on July 1, 1970.
Helms had the unfortunate position of being the bench coach for the Reds during the tumultuous period in 1988-89 when manager Pete Rose was under investigation for betting on baseball. When Rose’s ban from baseball was announced in August 1989, Helms was moved to interim manager. The bittersweet story is that he wasn’t allowed to become the full-time manager for the 1990 season, the year that the Reds went wire-to-wire in first place and won their most recent World Series with a four-game sweep over the Oakland A’s.
Yes, it’s a personal loss. Another part of the childhood of listening to games on the transistor radio and rooting for the Reds has gone. Helms wasn’t national Hall of Fame worthy, but he certainly made an indelible mark on Big Red Machine history.
Tommy Helms
Born Tommy Vann Helms, May 5, 1941, Charlotte, North Carolina
Died April 13, 2025, Cincinnati, Ohio (unknown cause) (age 83)
HALL OF FAME: Cincinnati Reds (1979); North Carolina Sports, (2013)
The tribute to Helms that ran at Great American Ball Park:Your browser isn’t supported anymore. Update it to get the best YouTube experience and our latest features. Learn moreRemind me later
13 people like this
12 responses
@crossbones27 (52326)
• Mojave, California
11 Jan
It is my worst nightmare, both Cardinals and Chiefs suck and Lakers not going anywhere. You are right people like that is what makes fans, fans, hearing the human call. see people who where not supposed to make it make it.
It to me is why people root for sports. Its the last industry, some say music, but to me that is way harder than sports. Sure do the same thing over and over again, but music you have to feel something and invent things, in sports, you just kind of get good eventually and have to invent nothing unless you just a weirdo who does weird things, meaning its what gives you success.
Thats where size and build come on but that is another story and if you have enough heart, you can make it in sports somewhere, music not quite the same. Good stuff miss lady.
Thats where size and build come on but that is another story and if you have enough heart, you can make it in sports somewhere, music not quite the same. Good stuff miss lady.2 people like this
@crossbones27 (52326)
• Mojave, California
11 Jan
@FourWalls Amem and people say they do not go off emotion. If music or sports does not make you feel something, then they failed at their job. Its all emotion.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (83850)
• United States
11 Jan
We have a different definition of “suck” in the NL Central: I thought the Cards sucked last year, but the true definition of “sucking” in the NL Central is finishing below the Pirates.
The other good thing about sports and music is that we can leave our divisions at the door. When I listened to Reds games as a kid, I had no idea who was black and who was white. I just knew who was on the Reds and who wasn’t. Same thing with a concert: you don’t ask someone if that seat is taken and hear, “depends, who did you vote for last election?” Sports only divides us properly: “hate the Y*nk**s” and your favorite team.
The other good thing about sports and music is that we can leave our divisions at the door. When I listened to Reds games as a kid, I had no idea who was black and who was white. I just knew who was on the Reds and who wasn’t. Same thing with a concert: you don’t ask someone if that seat is taken and hear, “depends, who did you vote for last election?” Sports only divides us properly: “hate the Y*nk**s” and your favorite team. 1 person likes this
@FourWalls (83850)
• United States
11 Jan
It’s like remembering Jack Fimple. I know who he is because he played for the Dodgers, but mostly for the Albuquerque Dukes, and I’d see him a lot when they played the Hawaii Islanders. Actually, Tommy Helms was a better player. Fimple was mostly a late-season call-up for the Dodgers.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (83850)
• United States
12 Jan
@TheHorse — he had two career home runs, so that should tell you he’s not going to be remembered by anyone but his family and people like me who saw him in the minors.
@TheHorse (235577)
• Walnut Creek, California
11 Jan
@FourWalls I do not remember Fimple.
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (130961)
• Marion, Ohio
10 Jan
But I can hang out here while reading it. 
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (83850)
• United States
11 Jan
Hey, that’s right!! And I won’t even sneak into George Horse’s hay to make you mad while you’re reading it! 
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (130961)
• Marion, Ohio
11 Jan
@FourWalls We are going to need to give him another bale soon. So if you want to pitch some to him I won't complain
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (83850)
• United States
11 Jan
There have been 37 Australians in major league history here in America. The first one, believe it or not, was Joe Quinn in 1884! To me, baseball is a modified version of cricket. People here complain that baseball is boring, so they’d never be able to tolerate cricket.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (374118)
• Rockingham, Australia
12 Jan
@FourWalls Softball is popular here too. Maybe a 'softer' version of baseball? I hated playing softball at school.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (83850)
• United States
12 Jan
@JudyEv — easier (at least slow pitch). Big ball, underhanded pitching, and the bases are 30 feet closer together. My dad played on a softball team when I was a kid…fun game for older players.
1 person likes this
@Deepizzaguy (119107)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
10 Jan
I remember the late Tommy Helms as a baseball player with the Cincinnati Reds Big Red Machine era. May he rest in peace.
1 person likes this
@Deepizzaguy (119107)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
11 Jan
@FourWalls It was a great era for the Reds since they were on television a lot.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (216174)
• United States
11 Jan
Sorry to hear about Helms. More unknown causes.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (83850)
• United States
11 Jan
“Unknown” means the family didn’t release the cause to the public.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (83850)
• United States
10 Jan
They were a team that you loved or loved to hate because they were so dominant.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (83850)
• United States
11 Jan
I understand. I don’t know many football players because I don’t like it. Same thing goes for basketball.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (169848)
• United States
10 Jan
I'm not a fan of sports and have never heard of Joe Morgan. 
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (83850)
• United States
11 Jan
Next time I’ll say “everyone except Daddy Evil.”
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (95255)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
10 Jan
Nope, no way, not a sports fan,
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (83850)
• United States
11 Jan
Hey! Hope you’re having a good weekend!
1 person likes this
@Dreamerby (9977)
• Calcutta, India
11 Jan
@FourWalls Yes okayish. Same routine.
1 person likes this
