Vanderbilt’s skipper crafts a different kind of baseball lineup
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BVM) — Vanderbilt University head baseball coach Tim Corbin knows how to craft an effective lineup.
Vanderbilt has been one of the more dominant programs in collegiate baseball over the past decade with Corbin leading the Commodores to two national championships, the latest coming in 2019. Over the past seven years, the team has gone to three national championships while extending its consecutive streak of NCAA tournament births to 14.
A 2020 inductee of the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Corbin has become an expert craftsman of composing lineups to help win games with over 850 victories in more than two decades of coaching, including 753 wins over 19 seasons for Vanderbilt. However, it’s the lineup the coach has recently helped create on his social media pages that may be his best yet.
With many teams, including his own preseason top-ranked team, limited with what they can do due to the government and NCAA restrictions in place to handle the COVID-19 outbreak, Corbin and his wife Maggie found a way to honor those who risked their lives during the pandemic while also tying in their passion for baseball cards. After being approached by a friend who is a doctor from Vanderbilt about creating an uplifting social media post for healthcare workers, the couple created the Hero Starting Lineup which would highlight the heroes on the frontlines of the pandemic through creating digital baseball cards of people in the medical community.
“We were thinking yeah he could do a shoutout, but that would be just one day. What could you do that you could sustain it and do something everyday?” Maggie said. “Then we just started brainstorming, which we do a lot of, and we came up with the idea of a baseball card that would not only help the healthcare worker, but humanize them in a way that people would get to know them a little bit and we could do that every day.”
On his Twitter page, Tim wrote, “An old Topps Baseball Card and my wife’s imagination were the impetus to create a way to honor our local heroes. From this day forward, I will highlight a lineup of heroes who are in mid-season form competing against a vicious opponent. Let’s Go…#herostartinglineup.”
The Corbins reached out to a number of medical professionals asking for doctors or ancillary workers who could be presented as a baseball card in the lineup. With help from the hospitals coordinating who the Corbins could use for their lineup, the Corbins’ idea was off and running. Originally, Tim attempted to create the art for the card himself before approaching Vanderbilt University Athletics graphic designer Shaun Senn, who helped to make the couple’s idea a reality.
Most of the lineup members are from around the Nashville area, though the Corbins have gone national to include Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House Task Force, Deborah Birx. Each card includes the professional’s name and the hospital they work in. With each card, Tim will write a small description of the medical professional which will include not only background information on the person, but will also tie in some baseball vernacular as well
An old Topps Baseball Card and my wife’s imagination were the impetus to create a way to honor our local heroes. From this day forward, I will highlight a lineup of heroes who are in mid-season form competing against a vicious opponent. Let's Go…#herostartinglineup
— Tim Corbin (@TimCorbin) April 8, 2020
“When we got them, we just presented them in the order we received them as a baseball card with their name, their position, the hospital they work in and a personal side of things,” Tim said. “Where they’re from…wanting people to know they’re parents too, they’ve got another life on the other side of the hospital. So we just wanted to recognize that and them, and do it on a daily basis.”
The Corbins said the cards help to humanize the people recognized in the cards while also connecting their stories to everyone to understand and respect what they’re doing.
“It really gives a name and a backstory to each healthcare worker and we as people we want to know who these people are,” Maggie said. “They’re saving our lives. So the better we know them, I think the better it makes everyone feel.”
The first person to have a published card, Bennett Wolford of Centennial Medical Center, is a friend of the Corbins’ daughter, who works as a nurse on the front line. Maggie, curious to how her friend was doing, texted Wolford asking if she was OK and in response got the photo which would end up being used on the card with a simple response, “I’m OK.”
“She took a selfie and sent it to me and said ‘I’m OK’ and I just thought that picture was just hauntingly beautiful,” Maggie said. “So that was the very first one. I said, ‘I’ve got the first one right here.’”
For the Corbins, it’s more than just creating fun and fancy playing cards to pass the time during the outbreak. It’s about drawing attention to those people who are doing their part to help make and
keep the community healthy. Although Vanderbilt’s baseball season is not happening,
these cards allow for medical professionals to get recognized for “their season” as Tim put it
“I just thought it was a way to bring awareness and attention to these individuals because it is their season and it’s always their season,” Tim said. “But I think, particularly now, it becomes a very intensified season because of what they’re dealing with physically (and) mentally.”
“We just felt like we can’t play, our season is over, but these are the players,” Maggie said. “As helpless as we feel because really all we can do is stand on the sidelines and root for them and root them on. So it makes us feel a little better that at least we’re trying, we’re trying to root them on.”
So far, the couple has slowly made their way through a crowd of healthcare professionals who have had their information submitted to them through the couple’s email for the project. Tim said the number of cards in the lineup by the end of the pandemic could break 100. With so many names continuing to come in, the Corbins expect the lineup to continue to be a part of their daily routine for a while, but they don’t mind it at all.
“I think right now in the database we have a lot of names so this is going to run for quite some time and we’re going to continue to do it. We’re having fun with it,” Tim said.
The most difficult thing for the Corbins is trying to have everyone involved and not leaving anyone out.
“I know there’s people out there that we’d love to recognize that probably aren’t in front of us right now so it’s just trying not to leave anyone out, but you know what time is on our side,” Corbin said. “We’ve got enough time, God willing, to just keep producing this and we will so we won’t leave anyone out and in time we will recognize everyone we feel needs to be recognized and if they’re not this doesn’t have to stop.”
Although Corbin has had plenty of experience composing lineups, he admitted this new lineup is not an easy one to make. With hurdles such as word counts on Twitter and research needed for the backstories, it can get frustrating for Corbin who takes the lessons in stride.
“You know if you do it on Twitter, you’re condensed to a certain amount of words and we were one letter too long. It was driving us crazy and I’m getting annoyed and I shouldn’t be, but I was. It is what it is,” Corbin said laughing.
“It can be challenging,” Maggie added with a laugh.
At a time where it is hard to find much positive energy surrounding the world of sports, the Corbins brought together the world of sports and medicine in a fun way that also honors those who worked the hardest to get people healthy. Although his Commodores won’t be able to take the field this season, Tim Corbin will still get some practice in crafting a strong team through the Hero Starting Lineup.
