USA TODAY International Edition
VANDERBILT, MICHIGAN SET FOR CWS FINALS
OMAHA, Neb. – Maybe this year’s College World Series was destined to spotlight a coaching tree that was planted at Clemson, sprouted at Vanderbilt and bloomed through years of friendship to form an unlikely family — between two coaches, their wives, children, and with help from a group chat that commemorated the journey Friday night with a text: Congratulations.
Soon, Maggie Corbin, the wife of Vanderbilt baseball coach Tim Corbin, would call Jiffy Bakich, the wife of Michigan coach Erik Bakich. Tim and Erik would talk, too. The head coaches, teacher and pupil, were too busy to meet in person, but they will see each other when Michigan faces Vanderbilt in the best-of-three-games CWS finals starting Monday.
“I never would have believed it,” Tim Corbin said. “The fact that it takes a lot of special things to happen and so many timing issues involved in order for both teams to come together in the end, just to be able to do it with his family is great. It’s so special.”
Corbin, the architect of one of college baseball’s juggernauts, wouldn’t have built it without Bakich. And Bakich, who has led U-M to its first CWS in 35 years, wouldn’t have made it without Corbin. And neither would be on the same group chat if it weren’t for the women behind the scenes.
When Bakich joined Clemson as a volunteer assistant at 23 in 2002, he immediately connected with Corbin, a veteran assistant. Bakich played the role of the Corbins’ unofficially adopted adult child. When Corbin left to take the helm at Vanderbilt in 2003, it was a no-brainer that he would ask Bakich to join him.
Sometime around their second date, Bakich brought Jiffy to the Vanderbilt baseball offices to meet Corbin. Soon thereafter, Jiffy met Maggie, and the Corbins’ two daughters, and soon, they were having dinners together.
Vanderbilt’s success led to Bakich’s first head coaching job at Maryland, then a few years later, with a recommendation from Corbin, at Michigan.
“I don’t think there could be a better way ... knowing that our families are so close, the best of friends close — maybe friends isn’t even the word, they feel a part of our family — so I don’t know if there’s a higher level of respect for the love our family has and the coaching tree we’re a part of,” Bakich said, “than to meet in the College World Series finals.”
— Detroit Free Press’ Anthony Fenech