:Hank Helf

{{Short description|American baseball player (1913–1984)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}

{{Infobox baseball biography

|name=Hank Helf

|position=Catcher

|bats=Right

|throws=Right

|birth_date={{Birth date|1913|8|26}}

|birth_place=Austin, Texas

|death_date={{death date and age|1984|10|27|1913|8|26}}

|death_place=Austin, Texas

|debutleague = MLB

|debutdate=May 5

|debutyear=1938

|debutteam=Cleveland Indians

|finalleague = MLB

|finaldate=September 29

|finalyear=1946

|finalteam=St. Louis Browns

|statleague = MLB

|stat1label=Batting average

|stat1value=.184

|stat2label=Hits

|stat2value=35

|stat3label=Runs batted in

|stat3value=22

|teams=

• Cleveland Indians ({{mlby|1938}}, {{mlby|1940}})
• St. Louis Browns ({{mlby|1946}})

|highlights=

}}

Henry Hartz Helf (August 26, 1913 – October 27, 1984) was an American professional baseball player. He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball for the Cleveland Indians in 1938 and 1940 and the St. Louis Browns in 1946.{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/helfha01.shtml |title=Hank Helf at Baseball Reference |website=Baseball Reference |accessdate=8 January 2016 }} From 1944 to 1945, Helf served in the military during World War II.{{cite book|title=The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia|year=2007|publisher=Sterling Publishing|isbn=978-1-4027-4771-7|pages=568}}

On August 20, 1938, as part of a publicity stunt by the Come to Cleveland Committee, Helf, along with Indians' catcher, Frankie Pytlak, caught baseballs dropped from Cleveland's {{convert|708|ft|m|adj=mid|-tall}} Terminal Tower by Indians' third baseman Ken Keltner.{{cite magazine |last=Anderson |first=Bruce |url=https://www.si.com/vault/1985/03/11/620572/when-baseballs-fell-from-on-high-henry-helf-rose-to-the-occasion |title=When Baseballs Fell From On High, Henry Helf Rose To The Occasion |magazine=Sports Illustrated |date=March 11, 1985 |accessdate=January 8, 2016}} The {{convert|708|ft|m|adj=on}} drop broke the 555-foot, 30-year-old record set by Washington Senator catcher Gabby Street at the Washington Monument.{{cite web|url=http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&bid=322&pid=7402|title=The Baseball Biography Project: Ken Keltner|last=Nitz|first=Jim|publisher=Society for American Baseball Research|accessdate=20 July 2010}} The baseballs were estimated to have been traveling at 138 miles per hour when caught.