This Time, Corbett Was Well-Fit for the Task

So impressed were the Angels with reliever Sherman Corbett at last year’s spring training camp that they presented him with his very own uniform. They even went so far to give him the same jersey number--23--that he wore with Midland, the Angels’ double A team. And the stitched name was spelled right, too.

This was great, Corbett must have thought. Customized uniform, a low jersey number (as opposed to the kiss-of-death 94s or 73s) . . . Angel management must love him.

Then he tried it on.

The pants barely reached his knees. If the jersey were any tighter Corbett would have lost consciousness. Something was wrong, terribly wrong.

Turns out Angel equipment men had attempted a fast one. Rather than tailor a uniform specifically for Corbett, they tried the next best thing: Fake it. It was a Corbett outfit, all right--Doug Corbett’s, a former reliever released by the Angels after the 1986 season. Same name. Same number. But different dimensions.

Doug Corbett is 6-foot 1-inch, 185 pounds. Sherman Corbett weighs in at 210 and tops out at 6-4. Needless to say, some alterations were made.

“They tried to get out of some work by giving me (Corbett’s) old uniform,” Corbett said. “Instead, they had to do double the work. I just tried it on and gave it right back.”

As did the Angels, who tried Corbett on for size, decided they didn’t like the fit, and sent him to Edmonton. This season they didn’t even bother inviting him to camp, instead, assigning him another stay in Midland.

Who could blame them? In his four previous minor-league seasons, Corbett’s earned-run average grew progressively worse, from 3.14 to 4.03 to 4.88 to 5.37. Add to that his switch from starter to reliever and you have the reasons for the Angels’ thinking.

“That’s fine,” Corbett said. “I didn’t really look at it as a demotion.”

More of an opportunity, really. What with the Angels short of left-handed reliever, Corbett decided he could prove himself just as well in Texas as he could in Alberta. And he did, too, recording 40 strikeouts in just 47 innings, earning two saves and three victories before the Angels noticed. Out went reliever Ray Krawczyk, in came Corbett last Wednesday.

“I knew if I could do the job, they would call me up,” he said.

But it wasn’t until Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles that Corbett made his first appearance. And while the Angels later went on to lose, 3-2, no one could blame Corbett for the defeat.

He pitched a scoreless fifth, sixth and seventh inning, allowed two walks but not a single hit. When it was over, Manager Cookie Rojas stood ready with compliments.

“You couldn’t have asked for a better performance out of him,” Rojas said.

Not under Sunday’s circumstances, you couldn’t. Corbett was sitting in the Angel bullpen, watching the game when Terry Kennedy hit a line drive directly at Angel starter Kirk McCaskill. It was a draw on which made more noise: Kennedy’s bat hitting the ball, or the ball hitting McCaskill’s right forearm.

Sound effects aside, McCaskill was whisked to the Angel training room and Corbett, without the benefit of a warmup pitch, was whisked to the mound. After several minutes of practice throws, Corbett faced his first major-league batter, none other than . . .

“(Do I know) the first guy I faced?” he said later. “Not really, off hand.”

For history buffs, it was Wade Rowdon, who reached first on a fielder’s choice. Rowdon was caught stealing for the second out and Rene Gonzales flied to center to end Corbett’s memorable inning.

Nervous? “A little bit, but not as much as I thought I would be,” Corbett said.

Actually, the suddenness of McCaskill’s departure and Corbett’s entrance may have worked in the Angels’ favor. No time to ponder, just pitch.

“I wasn’t really thinking about coming in here,” he said.

As opposed to last Wednesday, when Corbett took his place for the first time in the Angel bullpen. Whenever the phone rang, Corbett jumped. “My heart would start beating fast just thinking about it,” he said.

Not Sunday; it didn’t have time.