Rox fans to Root Sports: “Go to Helmer”
Rockies fans love their baseball and their goofball game host Tom Helmer. They’re mad as hell at Root Sports Rocky Mountain for firing him.
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Over the past six Colorado Rockies seasons the desk-top dancing Tom Helmer has co-hosted their television broadcasts with Denver Post baseball writer, Tracy Ringolsby.
Whether working for Fox Sports or Root Sports (the re-branded subsidiary of DirecTV engineered to “emphasize connections between the network and fans who passionately support their local teams“), Helmer made fan involvement key in sharing the at-game experience with legions of home viewers.
Helmer is a goofball whose connection with the Rockies faithful was always genuine and never forced. He’s as real as the game its self. Whether or not the Rockies won Tom made the broadcasts fun. And when they did win he led throngs of people dressed in purple and black in post-game cheers. Viewers at home felt like they were there with him and hundreds of their closest friends, celebrating at Coors Field.
He always did a fantastic job. So why was he fired?
The Twitterverse practically imploded yesterday afternoon when Tom Helmer Tweeted:
I have loved every minute of covering the Rockies, DU, CU and CHSAA. I’m sorry it won’t continue as ROOT Sports is moving on without me
His account was inundated with thousands our supportive messages. It was amazing, really. Rockies fans were stunned.
Count me among them.
Baseball is all about familiarity. It suffers change with reluctance and it’s fans are no different. Helmer is nothing if not the perfect fit for the job. He was like a well-worn tee shirt or that perfect pair of jeans that you will never throw away. Only Root Sports Rocky Mountain (@RootSports_RM) did throw him away:
Thanks to @Tom_Helmer for all his hard work and dedication over the last 6 years. We wish him the best
Baffling.
A generation of young Rockies fans was being raised on Tom Helmer. He’s as well loved as any local television personality.
The proof is in the Tweeting.
A #saveHelmer campaign is in full swing in social media. A search for that hashtag brings up thousands of angry Tweets directed at Root Sports Rocky Mountain and users are being encouraged to stop following the network and to “unlike” it on Facebook.
Unless there is something scandalous that the public does’t know about the situation, Root Sports really screwed up by not renewing Helmer’s contract.
Alanna Rizzo, the popular dugout reporter, was already leaving to work for the MLB Network. So now viewers have lost two favorites, two people who defined their experiences as viewers.
The network has some ‘splainin’ to do. But as of this writing there has been no explanation. The most recent thing anyone has heard from Root Sports is that they were letting Tom Helmer go.
Even local media personalities have piped up about Helmer’s demise. His colleagues seem to be just as flummoxed as the rest of us.
It’s not too late for Root Sports Rocky Mountain to do the right thing and renew his contract. With enough public pressure they just might. It’s difficult to contact the Network via the web, however. It’s doubful that they are monitering their Twitter account and they probably don’t give two shits how many “likes” they lose on Facebook. Any effort to communicate with them via their web site is fruitless, as well.
Here at the South Stands we havce been trying to contact them in support of our friend, Lauren Gardner, as Alanna Rizzo’s replacement. We only run into a brick wall. There’s no easy way to contact anybody there. In other words, Root Sports is not listening.
Setlling the Helmer issue might take real action – protests at their offices at 2399 Blake Street or an all-out refusal on the part of fans to tune into their channel.
Maybe they had a good reason. Root Sports doesn’t need to promise to bring Tom Helmer back. But they owe us an explanation. And it better be a good one.
