TUCSON - When Todd Helton was growing up in Knoxville, Tenn., one of his prized possessions was a replica jersey of University of Tennessee quarterback Alan Cockrell.

"When you were a kid in Knoxville, there wasn't pro sports, it was Tennessee football," Helton said. "He was the quarterback for the football team and played baseball, too. He was bigger than life."

Helton followed in Cockrell's footsteps, playing quarterback for the Volunteers, and baseball, too. And like Cockrell, Helton wound up a first-round draft choice in baseball, choosing to pursue that sport.

"We took different career paths," Cockrell said.

The paths, though, have run together again.

Cockrell, whose 13-year professional baseball career included only nine big-league games, is the hitting coach for the Rockies, taking over this spring for Duane Espy, who has taken a role in the Rockies' minor league system.

Helton, whose career already has included nine full big-league seasons, is one of Cockrell's prime pupils. Helton hopes Cockrell can help him rebound from what the first baseman considers two subpar seasons.

"There is definitely a comfort factor," Helton said. "We have a lot in common."

Helton, though, isn't the only member of the Rockies to have a comfort factor with Cockrell. Currently in his 10th year in the organization, Cockrell spent the final five months of the 2002 season as hitting coach for the big-league team.

The Rockies have undergone a major rebuilding program that has been created around players developed in their own farm system. As a result, Cockrell already has worked with many players on the big-league roster. All but seven of the 30 position players on the spring roster were previously associated with Cockrell.

His promotion is especially welcomed by shortstop Clint Barmes, who needs to rediscover his offensive game if he hopes to beat out rookie Troy Tulowitzki for a big-league job.

"My first year in pro ball, he helped me change from swinging the metal bat (in college) to the wood bat," Barmes said. "I had bad habits from the metal bat that he cleared up, and then he worked with me at (Triple-A) Colorado Springs (in 2003 and 2004) and helped me get here."

Cockrell believes he's also benefiting.

"It makes things a lot more comfortable for me, too," Cockrell said. "There hasn't been much of a feeling-out process that a new guy usually goes through. They know me. They know my demeanor. We know how to work with each other."

Most of all, the players have confidence in Cockrell because they have worked with him in the minors, where they enjoyed the success that allowed them to reach the majors. As a result, when Cockrell speaks, the players willingly listen.

"I had him for two years at Colorado Springs," third baseman Garrett Atkins said. "He helped in the transformation that made me a big-league hitter. He knows what my good swing looks like. He knows how I get into bad habits and how to get me out of them."

Cockrelll helped Atkins make the adjustment from hitting for average to driving the ball. It's similar to Jeff Baker's transformation in 2006 at Colorado Springs, which allowed Baker to arrive in the big leagues in September with an impact bat.

"He knows how to get you going," Baker said. "From a hitter's standpoint, he is someone you know is in your corner. He steps in here and there's not a learning period.

"He knows so many of us."

As much as the physical challenge of playing pro sports, there is the mental challenge. There is the need to believe in a coach.

"He was my manager at (Single-A) Carolina in 2000, and then he was the roving hitting instructor," left fielder Matt Holliday said. "He knows how to talk to you so that everything makes so much sense."

And that, said Helton, is what is important, along with "being able to get a point across the quickest way possible, so that it sinks in and you move forward."

Comfortable as the players are with Cockrell, he admits he has a comfort zone himself that was lacking in 2002, when he was called up to fill the hitting coach vacancy created when Clint Hurdle was promoted to manager.

Cockrell was disappointed when Hurdle decided to bring in Espy in 2003. He took several weeks to consider the Rockies' offer of becoming the hitting coach in Colorado Springs, where Cockrell makes his home. Now, he said, he looks back and realizes things worked out for the best.

"That half season made me realize areas where I needed to grow," he said. "Most of all though, this is good timing. Generally, these guys are coming into their third year (in the big leagues). There's a chance for (the Rockies) to have a really special offensive year."

COLORADO	ARIZONA (SS)
	ab	r	h	bi		ab	r	h	bi
Carroll 2b	4	1	1	0	Young cf	4	0	2	0
Bautista p	0	0	0	0	Weber, J rf	1	0	0	0
Hawkins p	0	0	0	0	Daigle p	0	0	0	0
Salazar ph	2	0	0	0	Callaspo ss	3	2	1	2
Finley cf	3	2	2	1	Shappi, A p	0	0	0	0
Nix 2b	0	1	0	0	Shappi, A p	0	0	0	0
Atkins 3b	3	1	1	1	Bonifacio 2b	2	0	0	0
Stewart 3b	3	0	2	0	Jackson 1b	3	2	2	1
Baker 1b	5	3	2	1	Carter 1B	2	0	0	0
Buchholz p	0	0	0	1	Hairston lf	3	1	1	3
Holliday lf	2	1	0	0	Thompson lf	1	0	0	0
Spilborghs lf	3	0	1	0	Montero c	3	0	2	1
Tulowitzki ss	4	3	3	3	Upton cf	2	0	0	0
Herrera ph-ss	2	0	0	0	Reynolds 3b	2	0	0	0
Gomez rf	3	1	3	3	Elliott, M p	0	0	0	0
Colina c	1	0	0	0	a-Richar ph-ss	3	0	0	0
Iannetta c	4	0	0	0	Romero, A rf	4	1	1	0
Clarke p	0	0	0	0	Peguero p	0	0	0	0
Koshansky 1b	1	0	0	0	Johnson c	1	0	0	0
Cook p	1	0	1	2	Castillo, W c	0	0	0	0
Sullivan ph-cf	3	1	1	0	Nippert p	1	0	0	0
Barker rf	1	0	0	0	Bass p	0	0	0	0
Totals	45	14	17	12	Erickson 3b	3	1	1	0
					Totals	41	7	11	7
Colorado......023	800	001	-	14	17	3
Arizona......200	500	000	-	7	11	3

E - Reynolds, Montero, Richar, Carroll, Stewart, Nix. LOB - Colorado 10, Arizona 8. 2B - Tulowitzki, Cook, Baker, Stewart, Callaspo. 3B - Gomez. HR - Hairston. SB - Nix, Gomez 2, Finley, Sullivan. SF - Buchholz.

COLORADO	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	Cook W	3	5	2	1	0	3
Bautista	1	5	5	0	0	1
Hawkins	1	0	0	0	0	0
Clarke	1	0	0	0	0	1
Buchholz S	3	1	0	0	1	2
ARIZONA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	Nippert	2	2	2	0	1	2
Bass L	1	9	8	7	0	3
Elliott, M	1	2	3	3	1	1
Shappi, A	1	1	0	0	1	2
Daigle	2	1	0	0	1	1
Peguero	2	2	1	1	1	2

WP - Elliott, M.

T - 3:21.

ringolsbyt@RockyMountainNews.com Rockies 14, D-backs (ss) 7

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