NDHSAA/BEK Communications Throwback Thursday: A look back at Rick Helling's first MLB career hit

By Tom Mix
NDHSAA Media Specialist

VALLEY CITY, N.D. – Each Thursday NDHSAA Media Specialist Tom Mix posts a “Throwback Thursday” that connects the past to the present. Each story will feature a news story highlighting a championship team, a specific tournament/event or significant individual(s) from NDHSAA history on the NDHSAA NOW website. Keep visiting each Thursday!

NDHSAA/BEK Communications Throwback Thursday: A look back at 1989 Fargo Shanley graduate Rick Helling recording his first hit of his MLB career as a pitcher for the Florida Marlins during the 1996 MLB season.

Rick Helling, a 1989 Fargo Shanley graduate and Major League Baseball player, recorded the first hit of his MLB career on September 28, 1996. Helling, the starting pitcher for the Florida Marlins in a road game against the Houston Astros at the Astrodome, singled off Houston Astros pitcher Danny Darwin in the top of the third inning.

Helling struck out five batters and yielded one run off five hits in six innings pitched for a no decision. The Marlins lost the game 5-1.

Helling had been sent to the Florida Marlins of the National League on September 3, 1996 to complete a previous trade made between the Marlins and the Texas Rangers – Helling’s first big league team of his career.

In the National League, Helling would need to bat as a starting pitcher. During his 12-year MLB career Helling would record six hits in 104 at-bats.     

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