After 19 seasons, the Vintage Commodores Script returns.
Where It All Began
The year is 2003. Vanderbilt’s baseball program last made the NCAA Tournament in 1980 and the team would take the field that season under the guidance of a new head coach, Tim Corbin. The team also debuted new uniforms featuring ‘Commodores’ in script underneath a bat and two stars.
The 2003 campaign marked the beginning of a transformational journey now 22 seasons in the making.
In Corbin’s first season with the team, Vanderbilt advanced to the SEC Tournament for the first time in seven years, finished second in the SEC Eastern Division and secured several victories over nationally-ranked league opponents. Vanderbilt won 27 games, including 14 SEC victories. In 29 home dates in its second season at Charles Hawkins Field, more than 24,000 Commodore fans passed through the turnstiles, and on five occasions, filled the stadium to capacity.
Arguably the most notable moment from the 2003 season came in Game 3 of the series against Tennessee. Needing a sweep to make it to the SEC Tournament, Vanderbilt took the first two games before Worth Scott walked off the Volunteers in the finale with a blast to right field to extend Vanderbilt’s season while ending the Vols’.
Vandy continued sporting the script uniforms during the 2004 season when All-Americans Jeremy Sowers and Warner Jones helped lead the program to its first 40-win season in school history and the school’s first NCAA Super Regional appearance.
The upward trajectory of the program was evident the following season in 2005 when a highly-touted freshman donned the script uniform as Murfreesboro native David Price began his career on West End.
Now, in 2024, the Vintage Commodores Script returns, this time on cream jerseys, as a nod to the competitive culture that has taken root within the Vanderbilt baseball program. The reimagined uniform featuring the vintage script mark symbolizes a notion of continued growth while paying tribute to those who laid the program’s rich foundation.
