NASHVILLE, Tenn. — There was no, “Omaha” in 2020. Still, Tim Corbin couldn’t stay away.
When the COVID-19 pandemic suddenly paused the 2020 Vanderbilt season in March, and then when that season was eventually canceled soon thereafter, Corbin and wife Maggie Corbin were staring down their first summer in a long time that did not revolve around baseball.
And that gave Maggie an idea.
As part of her 60th birthday celebration, Maggie went to Tim and suggested the two take a summer trip West. After some posturing and convincing from his wife the veteran Vandy baseball coach agreed to vacate his Hawkins Field office for a two-week excursion.
The couple rented a recreational vehicle and began their trek toward Stillwater, Oklahoma, where they first stopped to see Oklahoma State head baseball coach Josh Holliday. A few months later, Corbin and the Commodores would win two games in a three-game series at Oklahoma State.
After the brief hiatus in the Sooner State the Corbins next turned north for a more somber spot on the itinerary: Omaha, Nebraska.
Vanderbilt’s mission each season is to play in the Gateway to the West during college baseball’s biggest event and for more than a decade now the Dores have become annual contenders to reach that final stage of the postseason. The College World Series, of course, did not occur in 2020.
“This feeling now is it’s almost like we’re reopening it and helping rejuvenate the College World Series – and in some ways Omaha,” Corbin said Wednesday before the team departed campus for Nebraska where it will begin preparations to play Arizona at 6 p.m. Saturday. “We took that trip last year and it was tough to see that city in the shape that it was in because of no one being in it.”
The stop in Omaha included dinner at a favorite steakhouse before moving toward South Dakota and to Mount Rushmore – a site on the Corbins’ bucket list for years. From there the duo wove through Wyoming and Montana and Idaho before landing on Camano Island, Washington, to visit with Bruce Brown, a long-time mentor to Tim Corbin.
On the return route the Corbins checked in with Utah head baseball coach Gary Henderson in Salt Lake City, Utah.
By the time the Corbins had returned to Nashville they had spent 14 days away from home and 89 hours behind the wheel, crossed through 16 states and covered 6,000 miles.
On Wednesday, Tim and Maggie Corbin, along with the rest of the Commodores (45-15), had returned in Omaha. Vandy is one of eight teams vying for a national championship and, technically, is the defending national champions even though the 2020 squad didn’t have the opportunity to travel the sport’s mecca to have a shot at winning a back-to-back title.
That team’s coach made the pilgrimage during a lost season anyway, a pilgrimage which has become a regular one over the last 10 years – whether there has been baseball to be played or not.
— Chad Bishop covers Vanderbilt for VUCommodores.com.
Follow him @MrChadBishop.