June 10, 2011
Nashville, Tenn. – A sage basketball coach once noted there are few things less meaningful than a halftime score.
So let’s not pop any corks yet; it takes two to tango. Having one win in a best two-of-three is just a nice start. One is still the loneliest number but it beats the heck out of zero.
The Vanderbilt baseball team clearly understands this. If you noticed after it won the regional tournament championship last weekend, there were no wild celebrations, no Gatorade showers or dog piles at home plate. This tight-knit bunch knows they have promises to keep and miles to go before they sleep. Tonight that trip only got a little shorter.
It is exhilarating to witness the rare combination of talent and dedication in action.
Here is a collection of young men, more than a third of whom were taken in Monday’s Major League Draft. Several can expect to become wealthy by common standards with the stroke of their signature on a piece of paper. They are not focusing upon that. Nobody is shopping for fancy cars or designer clothes. There won’t be any trips to tattoo parlors this weekend.
Tim Corbin has said repeatedly that this is an uncommon bunch. By that, he means the Commodores have a sense of purpose that only the most mature teams ever attain. They push themselves, they hold each other accountable and they look for the good in their teammates.
If you have detected in their interviews this year, it’s a rare moment when one of them talks about himself before commenting on teammates. When Grayson Garvin was asked how he felt after being named the Southeastern Conference’s “Pitcher of the Year,” he spent the first 60 seconds talking about the team’s offense.
That’s no accident.
Corbin has had a profound impact on these men, one that transcends what occurs on the diamond. He will tell you that he recruits attitude and energy in addition to talent as he scans the nation’s finest high schoolers. It’s pretty easy to look at a radar gun and see some raw-boned lad is whipping it home at 90 miles per hour. It’s much tougher to figure out whose ego is beyond shrinking or who will cower when the heat gets turned up.
Our head ball coach is among the best at reading personalities because he genuinely likes people. He can recite the family tree of everyone on his current roster, which he does at the team’s pre-season dinner to the amazement of everyone.
After tonight’s unexpected rout, which no doubt quickly sent much of the national television audience in search of more drama, the Commodore skipper said his guys are “confident but with a sense of humility that won’t let that confidence get out of control.”
It is also a gifted team. It can bring Corey Williams out of the bullpen for the first time in weeks and let the lefty show his ability to confound batters.
This is a team that is playing loose. It would like to tango.
