CINCINNATI – Tommy Helms, the slick-fielding infielder for the Cincinnati Reds who was the 1966 NL Rookie of the Year and had two short stints as the team's manager, has died. He was 83.

Tommy Helms, a Charlotte native and West Mecklenburg graduate who replaced Pete Rose as Cincinnati Reds’ manager, died Sunday at age 83.

A 16-year-old Tommy Helms told a Charlotte Observer reporter in 1957 that “maybe if I could get a little bigger, I could make it” in professional baseball. Helms got a little bigger.