Major League Baseball

Wigginton welcomes child the hard way

Published Jun. 18, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

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At the big-league level, Colorado Rockies third baseman Ty Wigginton has played all four infield positions, left field and right field. He was a catcher in his youth, and even found himself behind the plate at the Triple-A level.

Yet, the biggest catch he has ever made came off the field.

It came in the closet of the master bedroom of his Mooresville, N.C., home, when his wife Angela gave birth to the couple’s second son, Cannon. While awaiting the arrival of EMTs, Wigginton handled the delivery, including tying off the umbilical cord with a shoestring.

"Fortunately," Wigginton said, "It was in the closest so when the 911 operator told me to use a shoestring there were plenty available. … The operator told me I had to be careful because if the cord broke Cannon and Angela could both bleed out."

Father's Day really hits home for the Wiggintons, who have two sons, and a daughter, who was born after Cannon.

"I can assure you, as soon as Angela coughed that time, she was headed to the hospital," Wigginton said.

Not so with Cannon.

It was shortly before 4 a.m., on the morning of Dec. 20, 2006, when his wife began experiencing contractions about seven minutes apart. The couple didn’t panic at the time. When their first son, Chase, was born, after all, Angela went through labor for 14 hours, and there was no hurry for an extended wait at the hospital the second time around.

By 6 a.m., the contractions were coming so quickly that Angela decided it was time to head to the hospital, a precautionary move if nothing else. While Ty was giving two-year-old Chase medicine for a battle with the flu in preparation for dropping him off at his in-laws' home on the way to the hospital, Angela was in the closet, getting dressed, and all plans were put on hold.

Cannon wasn't observing any schedule that his soon-to-be-new-parents had planned.

"All of a sudden she yells, 'We're having this baby now,'" Wigginton remembered. "At first, I think she’s kidding. Then I come around the corner and, sure enough. … "

Wigginton, an All-Star with Baltimore last year, has had plenty of challenges in his more than eight years of big-league service time, which began with the New York Mets and includes stops in Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay and Houston before the Orioles and Rockies.

Never, however, was it a life-and-death matter.

"I grabbed the phone and called 911 and told them to get somebody over there," Wigginton said. "Then I see the head coming out. I’m holding the baby, and (the 911 operator) is talking me through what to do."

Ten minutes later, the paramedics arrived.

"The baby came out and he looked great," Ty said. "The scary part was that Cannon never really cried until the EMTs got there, but he was breathing. His tongue was moving in and out of his mouth. I could feel his heart beating. They just told me to keep wiping his nose and mouth and keep him wrapped in a towel.

"I'm trying to reassure my wife that everything is OK. And Chase is banging on the door, trying to get in, asking if his mom is OK."

Mom and Dad were both fine, and amazingly calm. There was, after all, no time to panic.

"Everything happened so fast, I don't think either one of us had a chance to panic," said Angela. "I remember Ty handing me the phone when he had to tie off the umbilical cord, and asking me to relay instructions because he needed both hands to tie the shoestring. There's so much going on you don't really have time to think about things at the time."

Now, the Wiggintons can laugh about the adventures that morning in North Carolina.

One thing that wasn’t a problem was coming up with the name Cannon.

"We didn’t know the sex of the baby so we had a list of names for a girl and a boy, and Cannon was one of the names were we considering," Wigginton said. "With all that happened, the naming was a no-brainer. It had to be Cannon."

That’s plenty of memories, even if there is no video of the birth.

"We got the video on the first birth," Wigginton said. "Didn't have time to grab the camera with Cannon,"

"We have the 911 tape of the second," Angela said, smiling.

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