SAN DIEGO — Ryan Helsley's four-seamer regularly hits triple-digits. He's 18 for 22 in save chances and has fanned 88 in 60 1/3 innings in this breakout year in the back of the Cardinals' bullpen.
One reason he's in this position has something to do with spending his summers in Oklahoma outdoors instead of pouring over baseball history.
So the 28-year-old right-hander simply had no idea that "Hells Bells" became synonymous with Trevor Hoffman and the Padres long before he first picked up a baseball, nor did he actually choose the walk-up song in St. Louis. That was the doing of the Cardinals' ballpark operations, playing off the nickname that pitching coach Mike Maddux gave Helsley as he was breaking through in the majors.
