Samuel MTSM ’10 Knocks the Cover Off It

By David Climer, The Tennessean

As the region recovers from the Flood of 2010, credit Vanderbilt's baseball program for pitching in.

The Commodores are offering free tickets to their game with powerful Louisville on Tuesday night. Instead of paying for a ticket, fans are asked to donate money for flood relief.

There is a heavy dose of irony at work here. Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt's baseball coach, is no stranger to bad weather. He is notorious for playing games in terrible conditions.

Corbin takes his marching orders right out of the U.S. Postal Service code: Neither rain nor sleet nor gloom of night will stay these Commodores from the first pitch.

Players still tell the story about a game when the Commodores kept playing despite snowfall that covered the outfield.

"In the last inning, there was a ball hit to the outfield and the other team couldn't find it," star pitcher Sonny Gray said. "We ended up scoring and winning the game."

Somehow, the Commodores even got in 3½ innings against Georgia on Saturday night before the deluge forced the umpires to call it. The Sunday game was a total washout.

Even Corbin, a Weather Channel junkie, couldn't argue with Mother Nature on that one.

"It's kind of odd to see that your tarp could actually be a life raft on top of the field," he said. "Our coach in left field was in waist-deep water. It was a strange feeling. ... When the rain came, it stayed. The water went over the benches in the dugout."

Or as Gray said: "We came out and it looked like a pond. Put some fish out there and we would've been good to go all day long. It was amazing."

The field has bounced back. And so have the Commodores. After a weekend series at LSU, Vanderbilt will have free admission for the Louisville game.

The remaining 1,300 tickets for that game will be available Tuesday. Donations will go to the American Red Cross. But you must obtain a ticket for admission.

This was the brainchild of Thomas Samuel, who handles media relations for the Commodores baseball team. As the idea was being discussed at McGugin Center, the decision was made to use the Vanderbilt-Louisville baseball game to raise money because it was the first significant sporting event on campus since the flood.

"When the idea went out, everybody said, 'My gosh, this is such a good thing, such a smart thing to do,' " Corbin said. "When you can take an athletic event and channel it toward a cause, it means more than the winning and losing. ...

"It'll take some time to restore homes and restore the normal way of life. I hope we can help with the financial side of it in some way."

This is yet another example of the community spirit that is evident in the aftermath of the flood. Everyone seems to be pitching in. It's nice to see the local sports world getting involved.

"When the game's over, we'll look back and realize that we were part of something that really helped a lot of people," Gray said. "That makes you feel good."

And knowing Tim Corbin, I'd bet against a rainout.