SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — On the versatility meter, nothing Ty Wigginton does for the Rockies is likely to compare with delivering a baby in a closet, which is how he brought his second son into the world.
Still, manager Jim Tracy promises to do what he can. Before spring training is over, Tracy says Wigginton will play first, second, third, right field and left field.
Sunday, with Ian Stewart nursing a sore knee from a collision with Carlos Gonzalez, Wigginton played third against the Indians. He homered and doubled in three at-bats, raising his spring average to .333.
Now 33, on his sixth big-league team, Wigginton carries four gloves in his travel bag. It used to be five, but no one has asked him to carry a catcher’s mitt since his days in Tampa four years ago.
“I just like playing baseball,” he explained. “I like competing. I’ve never really minded where I’ve played. I think that’s how I started getting moved around, is a manager said: ‘Hey, we’re kind of short here. Would you mind going out to the outfield for a little bit?’ And I’m like, ‘Sure, I have no problem with that, I’ll go give it a shot.’ Or, ‘Would you mind going over to first base for a little bit while so-and-so’s out?’ ‘No, I’ll do it.’
“I try to keep it simple. A groundball’s a groundball, a flyball’s a flyball. You’ve got to catch it, you’ve got to throw it somewhere. And I think when you move around, that’s exactly what you’ve got to do, is keep it simple.”
Based on his production in Baltimore, where he hit 33 homers and drove in 117 runs over the past two seasons, he probably could have held out for a starting job somewhere, but when he talked to Tracy over the winter, he had another priority.
“First and foremost, it was play meaningful games late in the year,” Wigginton said. “This organization in the last few years has been as consistent as anybody in playing those meaningful games late in the season. That was the No. 1 drawing point.”
Still, not wanting him to sign and then feel he’d been misled, Tracy was explicit about the fact that he didn’t have a starting job to offer.
“And we chatted for a while and he says, ‘Trace, don’t take this personally, but ultimately I think the players determine who’s in the lineup,’ ” Tracy recounted. “I was sitting there with my feet up on the desk listening to him and just smiling. The guy we’re dealing with obviously gets it big-time.”
At a minimum, Wigginton represents an umbrella insurance policy. If Todd Helton doesn’t bounce back, if Stewart or Seth Smith doesn’t hit left-handers, if CarGo is injured, Wigginton can step into any of those spots. He can also fill in at second, although the Rocks have three other candidates there in Jose Lopez, Jonathan Herrera and Eric Young Jr.
If you want to understand Wigginton’s equanimity, the best example came Dec. 20, 2006, when his wife, Angela, was pregnant with their second child.
“It was early in the morning,” Wigginton recounted. “My wife said, ‘I think I’m getting ready to start labor.’ So I called up her parents and told them we were going to drop off our oldest son, Chase. My wife went to get in the shower.
“So I’m getting Chase ready, all of a sudden my wife yells my name. She had gone into the closet to get dressed. I go in there and I remember closing the door to make sure Chase wouldn’t get in. He was 2 at the time.
“I told her to lay down. I had time to call 911 and give them our address. Then the baby pops out and I basically just caught him. I get back on the phone and they told me to tie the umbilical cord with my shoestring.
“I think it took seven or eight minutes for the EMTs to get there, maybe 10 minutes, but it seemed like three hours. He was moving his mouth, opening and closing it. He didn’t cry until the EMTs got there. I think during that time span I felt every emotion possible. It was the only time in my life I’ve ever felt that, and probably ever will. But everything turned out perfect. It was pretty intense.”
They named him Cannon. You can probably figure out why.
“We say no, but I think with the way he came, obviously it had something to do with it,” Wigginton said. “But that was on our list. It wasn’t like he was going to be a John and all of a sudden he was born that way and nope, he’s got to be a Cannon. Cannon was one of our choices. So that kind of made it easy.”
Wigginton smiled. Playing a bunch of positions on a baseball diamond? Not that big a deal.
Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297, dkrieger@denverpost.com or
