One hundred and forty miles per hour is faster than most cars. It’s the speed at which the winds of Hurricane Katrina hit the coast of Louisiana. And on July 2 at Cohen Stadium in El Paso, Texas, 140 mph was how fast the baseball was going when it struck Ocean City resident David Whigham in the head.
Whigham, 23, was carrying a no-hitter into the fourth inning when the Grand Prairie Air Hogs’ third baseman, Cesar Nicolas, stepped to the plate. On the first pitch of the at-bat, Nicolas did what all baseball players are taught: He turned Whigham’s fastball around and sent it right back up the middle — right back at Whigham.
It happened in an instant. Many people in the stadium never even saw it — but they heard it.
“People thought it was a bat crack,” Whigham said. “But it wasn’t a bat, it was my skull.”
“Don’t move don’t move,” he remembers hearing the team doctor tell him on the field. “I heard the crack, I could hear it from my skybox.”
Read More Pitcher David Whigham faces a medical emergency during a game
