Part Two: Context Is Everything When It Comes To Vanderbilt Baseball Coach Tim Corbin

Winning a national championship in any sport is no easy feat, something not lost on Corbin. He realizes that just because he has two such trophies resting comfortably in his office, that doesn't guarantee he will ever reach that milestone again.

"Everyone starts the year saying they want to win their last game, but the reality is that it's so far fetched. You know, I don't care if it's Nick Saban, I don't care of it's Gregg Popovich you know, winning the final game is very, very difficult to do, and we may never do it here again," stated Corbin. "The chances are we won't, the reality is the day to day communications and relationships that you have with these kids are overriding, and if that's relationship is special, and it's harmonic and it's consistant what ends up happening is the coaches go home at night and can spend quality time with their familes and their kids and not thinking about what happened behind them because it was a rough day."

J.J. Bleday lead the nation in homeruns for last season's champs. Replacing his power will be a challenge this season, so naturally the question of anyone who could potentially provide power this season seemed in order.

"No, not like that, he was special," said Corbin. "That's a special player, that's a special kid, but you know, I couldn't say that about J.J. when he first got here. If you asked me that same question, I'd say no, not right now. I think there's a lot of developement that takes place in terms of making decisions on pitches, understanding what power really is and not trying to manufacture it.

"The reality of J.J. is that power didn't fall on him all of a sudden. I think people see his numbers and go, what's the difference? You know, it's age and maturity and know how. He would have hit a lot of home runs his sophomore year if he was healthy. He wasn't, he missed about eight or nine weeks, but what he could do and what gives you an opportunity to hit for power is his ability to get the barrel to the ball, the center of the ball on numerous occasions. He did that as a young kid so you felt like, ok, if he continues growing and his care level is high then he has a chance to put himself in a position to hit the ball hard and hit the ball consistantly."

As for the current roster.

"We don't have a player like that, I mean we don't have anyone close to that," Corbin said.

Hawkins field has new turf for the coming season, something that Corbin never asked the university to provide.

That's (new athletic director) Malcolm Turner, that's all Malcolm Turner, that's Malcolm Turner sending me an email the first day in his position and saying, 'can I get you new turf," continued Corbin."Who does that."

"That's all him. It's just came out of his pocket' stated Corbin. "That's a big expenditure. He didn't have to do that. He could have drug his feet on it. I didn't even ask him, he asked me so I appreciate that. We appreciate that."

Recruiting is the life-blood of any sports program and Corbin shared his thoughts on the process.

"It's not easy, it's not easy at all. I mean it's not easy anywhere you are and it doesn't matter what kind of product you have because there are a lot of players out there and the recruiting masses are spread out so the chance to recover all your high end players is minnemal that you'll get one hundred percent of them, some years you will but most you won't," said Corbin. "Where Vanderbilt is and the thing we shoot for is just trying to find the right fit. We try to find the student athlete, one that cherishes the academic experience as well as the athletic experience. If they don't balance thenselves out, typically we haven't made the right decision in terms of a kid respecting the duality of college athletics, which in Vanderbilt;s case are academics and athletics."

Corbin maintains a strong relationship with his former players, many of whom are playing professional baseball, including three current major league pitchers who produced a milestone as former Commodore players.

"Good for them. Mikie Minor in particular because of his comeback story, it's significant. He's a kid for all intents and purposes was probably done with baseball because of a shoulder injury, which for a pitcher is devastating and he came back from it, and not only did he come back from it but he pitched at a very, very high level. Getting that 200th strikeout the other day, I know there were some comments based on how he got it but that didn't bother me at all because I realize and recognize how hard that kid had to in order to get to that point."

"It is significant because of Sonny (Gray) bouncing back from last season, it's all comeback situations for the most part, with the exception of Walker (Buehler) but Walker's a comeback story too because he had arm surgery leading up to his rookie year," continued Corbin. "All three of them are special, but there are more special kids too. If (David) Price would have been available he would have hit that number too, but he wasn't so I'm very happy for those kids. Very happy for those kids and hope they stay healthy and continue to grow into their 30's, which from a major league standpoint is being recognized as the latter years in terms of pay and how people approach pay with these kids so I hope they get everything out of that game that they possibly can."

One other former pitcher provided a laugh for everyone no named Tim Corbin in the room when I asked him about how often he is in contact with those former players.

"The Roladex has extended itself now so it's more difficult because of the numbers, but you basically pick up right where you left off," continued Corbin. " I mean a guy like Kyle Wright, this morning I text him and congratulated his mother on his birthday because he didn't do anything. he just fell out after she did all the work for nine months, so I made sure that I congratulated his mother on that day because they do nothing and celebrate it like they did something heroic when they just were a catastrophy for their mom for nine months."

"That's why I just want to make sure he (Wright) knew that," concluded Corbin. "I told him to thank his mother because she's the reason, he's not."

Once again, context is truly everything when talking with Tim Corbin. Oh and the need to think deeper, beyond just the words he's speaking. Who knows, maybe I even learned something from him today.