Ray Corbin pitched for the Twins from 1971 to 1975.
Alton Ray Corbin was born February 12, 1949, in Live Oak,
Florida, to Raymond and Elizabeth Corbin. He played baseball, basketball, and
football at Suwannee High School in Live Oak, and graduated in 1966. He was not
drafted that summer, but at some point afterward he was spotted by Twins scout
Ellis Clary, who invited him to the team’s minor league camp in Melbourne,
Florida. After working out there for a few weeks he was offered a contract, and
in the summer of 1967 he pitched for the Twins’ team in the Rookie level Gulf
Coast League. He had a 3.56 ERA in 43 innings in nine games, five of them
starts. Meanwhile, he had attended classes at Lake City Junior College in
66-67, and he continued at North Florida Junior College in 67-68, earning his
AA degree.
Ray started 1968 with the Orlando Twins of the Class A
Florida State League, where he had a 4.20 ERA in 15 innings, mostly in relief.
On June 15 he filled out a questionnaire, in which he said he had no nickname,
was 6-2 ½ and 190 pounds, and was married with a son. He gave his off-season
occupation as student at Florida State, his hobbies as golf, fishing, and coin
collecting, and his baseball ambition to pitch in the major leagues.
Ray was moved back to the Gulf Coast League in time for
their season opener on July 1. He finished the season there and had a 2.04 ERA
in 75 innings in 15 games, 10 of them starts.
On March 6, 1969, Ray filled out another questionnaire; in
this one he said his nickname was Pond Bird, he was 6-2 195, and said he had
played no college sports due to being an ineligible professional. He went to
spring training on the roster of AAA Denver but was sent back to Orlando, where
he was named the Topps Florida State League player of the month for May, at the
end of which he had a 9-1 record and 2.25 ERA. In late June, with a 12-3 record
and 2.08 ERA in 134 innings, averaging over eight innings per start, he was
moved to the Red Springs Twins of the Carolina League, also Class A. He had a
3.68 ERA in 93 innings there.
In early 1970 Ray was invited by the Twins to major league
spring training and signed a AAA contract with Evansville. On March 30 he was
reassigned to the minor league camp; he was sent to the Charlotte Hornets of
the Class AA Southern League, for whom he was the opening day starter. On June
6 he got a blurb in the Sporting News:
Three’s a crowd, as far as Ray Corbin is concerned. The Charlotte righthander, who won his first two starts, failed for the sixth time in a bid for his third victory May 19. Birmingham knocked him out in the second inning, scoring three runs on five consecutive hits, and defeated Charlotte, 4-1. The defeat was the fourth for Corbin, who had no decision in his two other futile starts.
He reappeared in TSN on June 27:
HE WHO HESITATES…
A moment’s hesitation cost Ray Corbin a no-hitter when the Charlotte right-hander beat Savannah, 3-1, in the nightcap of a doubleheader June 10. Corbin retired the first 15 batters before walking Ed Staples to open the sixth inning. After Bob Marcano struck out, Jerry Haggard hit a grounder up the middle. Shortstop Tom Nichols fielded the ball, hesitated to look at Staples and then threw to first base too late to catch Haggard, who was credited with an infield hit. Staples advanced to third on the play and scored when Fred Smith rolled into a forceout.
And again on July 25:
Ray Corbin pitched a two-hitter against Birmingham July 8, but one of the hits was enough to beat the Charlotte righthander, 1-0. Jim Clark produced the run for the Athletics with a homer in the seventh inning. Charlotte rapped Tommie Smith for seven hits and drew six walks but left 13 men on base.
Ray spent the whole season with Charlotte, and went 11-14
with a 2.86 ERA in 208 innings in 32 starts. In November the Twins moved him to
their 40-man major league roster to protect him from the minor league draft.
In 1971 Ray made the team in spring training, and he made
his major league debut on opening day, pitching the last two innings of a 7-2
home loss to the Brewers and giving up the last two runs; the first batter he
faced was pitcher Marty Pattin, whom he walked.
Ray only got into two more games in the next three weeks,
but then he started getting the call much more often. From a May 7 AP article,
as it appeared in the Charleston News & Courier:
Rookie Corbin Is ‘Saving’ Twins
ST. PAUL-MINNEAPOLIS (AP)—Ron Perranoski and Stan Williams are driving Bill Rigney buggy, but rookie Ray Corbin is providing some kind of relief for the Minnesota Manager.
Perranoski and Williams combined for 17 victories and 49 saves from Rigney’s bullpen in 1970 as the Twins won their second straight West Division championship in the American League.
But this season, Perranoski and Williams have combined for a mere two saves, no victories and five losses.
“They’re driving me buggy,” Rigney said about their showing.
Then there’s the 22-year-old Corbin, who was invited last February to the Twins’ spring training camp for the first time.
“That’s how strange this game of baseball can be,” said Howard Fox, Twins vice president and traveling secretary. “I watched Corbin in spring training and he sure didn’t look to me like he would make it.”…
“The only time I’ve felt any pressure,” said Corbin, “was my first game and they brought me in only to mop up.”
“He had the control in spring training,” said Rigney. “He just wasn’t throwing very hard. He’s releasing the ball just right now.”
Corbin said he has worked with pitching Coach Marv Grissom on a curve ball to go along with slider and fastball pitches.
“The curve is coming around,” said Corbin. “I’ve never been a reliever before. It presents quite a challenge. But I haven’t felt the pressure I did in my first big league game.”
The AL stats published in Sunday newspapers on May 23 showed
Ray as the league’s ERA leader at 0.83 (among pitchers with four or more
decisions, though he had pitched only 21 innings). From the June 5 Sporting
News:
Twins’ Lifesaver: Reliever Ray Corbin
By Bob Fowler
TWIN CITIES, Minn.—His name is Alton Ray Corbin and he was born in Suwannee County, Fla., about a mile from the area’s river. “I used to fish in that river, but I’ve had a tough time convincing people it really exists,” he said. “They think it only exists in a song.”
The 22-year-old righthander isn’t having trouble convincing people he is a major league pitcher, however. Since spring training started in February, he has advanced from a ticket to Minnesota’s Portland (Pacific Coast) farm club to a spot on the Twins’ staff, to an important role in the bullpen to a 4-1 record after five weeks of the season and the league’s lowest earned-run average.
Calvin Griffith, the team’s president who has been involved in baseball virtually since the day he was born, said, “I didn’t think he was ready for the majors. He gave me the surprise of my life.”
He has been surprising batters, too…
“Deep inside I wasn’t sure I could pitch relief in the majors,” the dark-haired young man said one day in a hotel lobby in Anaheim. “I always had been a starter and I thought I would be pitching in Portland and, well, I was very nervous.
“But I got a little more confidence each time out and now I believe I can do the job.”
Bill Rigney has assigned him the job of replacing Williams while Tommy Hall, another 22-year-old, has been given the task of being the southpaw stopper instead of Perranoski…
And since joining Minnesota, Corbin truly has developed a major league fast ball.
“I started throwing it more overhanded and it is really moving and sinking,” he said. “I guess I’ve been throwing it about 95 percent of the time.”…
“I’d rather start, but I’d rather relieve in the majors than start in the minors,” he said. “That playing in the minors so you can play every day is a bunch of garbage. I’ve been there and I’ve seen that action.”
Concerning action, he has learned there is plenty of it in late-inning situations.
“Relieving is exciting,” he said. “It’s a great challenge because you win or lose with one pitch.”
When Corbin throws that pitch, he usually throws it for a strike and that’s why Rigney and pitching coach Marv Grissom liked him in Florida.
“He could throw strikes and keep the ball low,” Grissom said.”
“I remember asking Ray one day if he could throw strikes in game situations. He said, ‘You’re damn right I can.’
“I liked that about him, too. If you don’t have faith in yourself, you can’t expect others to have it.
“At first, we didn’t want to use him much because he was in the majors for the first time. But, with each outing, he got more confidence and I believe our manager did, too.”
Ray was moved into the starting rotation briefly, starting
four games in the second half of June; thereafter he would get an occasional
start as needed. He made 11 starts in all, three of them against Oakland’s Vida
Blue, winning two of the three in a season in which Blue went 23-6 against the
rest of the league. He wound up with an 8-11 record and 4.10 ERA in 140 1/3
innings in 52 games.
Over the winter of 1971-72 Ray pitched for Mayaguez in the
Puerto Rican Winter League, and had a 2.49 ERA in 130 innings as a starter.
There was speculation that he would be in the Twins’ rotation, but he started
the season in the bullpen. Through mid-June he had a 1.57 ERA in just eleven
games; after that point he was almost exclusively a starter. From a July 1 UPI
story, as it appeared in the Jersey Journal:
Twins’ Corbin a blessing in disguise
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (UPI)—Minnesota Twins’ manager Bill Rigney and young Ray Corbin were developing mutual liking yesterday.
Corbin was happy because he got to pitch. Rigney was elated because the 23-year-old from Live Oak, Fla., tossed his first major league shutout and “kept his mouth closed” in the process.
“I thought it was a pretty tough game he pitched,” Rigney said, after Corbin stopped the Kansas City Royals, 2-0 on six hits to end their five-game winning streak.
“That Corbin is a pretty tough competitor. He’s got good stuff. He has a fine temperament for a pitcher and he keeps his mouth closed—when he is pitching and when he is not pitching.”
The comment was an obvious reference to Twins’ pitcher Dick Woodson, who Corbin is challenging for a job in the starting rotation. Last Sunday, Woodson and Rigney almost came to blows in the dugout in Kansas City when Rigney took the protesting righthander out of the game.
Rigney said he holds “nothing against Dick Woodson.” Still, there was a sparkle in his eye when he talked about Corbin, who is now 4-0 with a 1.39 earned run average despite a 17-day layoff early in the year.
“I got stronger as the game went on,” Corbin said smiling. “I threw 85 percent fastballs. Rigney says I will start Tuesday in Boston.”
As it turned out, both Ray and Woodson remained in the
rotation, due to a season-ending injury to Jim Kaat. Ray went 8-9 with a 2.62
ERA in 161 2/3 innings in 31 games, 19 of them starts. He also made three
pinch-running appearances, the only ones of his major-league career.
Ray returned to the bullpen for 1973, making just seven
starts, four of them in the second half of September. He was the Twins’ main
closer, leading the team in saves with 14 and in games finished. He was 8-5
with a 3.03 ERA in 148 1/3 innings in 51 games; in each of his three major
league seasons he had won eight games and struck out 83 batters. After the
season he formed a winter bowling league team with teammates Rod Carew, Bert
Blyleven, Tony Oliva, Dave Goltz, and Danny Thompson. From the December 29 Sporting
News:
And of Corbin, Manager Frank Quilici said, “We have handed him every lousy detail a team can give a pitcher. We’ve used him as a short man, long man and a starter. It’s about time we give him a break. Every time he’s filled in as a starter over a period of time, Ray has done well.”
A February 2, 1974, Sporting News article by Bob
Fowler elaborated on the above, and ended with:
So, if you’re watching the Twins on television this summer, don’t be surprised to see Corbin get out of a bullpen car. And don’t be surprised to see Corbin’s name listed as the probable starting pitcher two days later.
Corbin’s main problem in all of this, in addition to fighting feelings of insecurity, is that he never has established himself as a standout as a starter, or reliever. Thus, he doesn’t earn the money of a Sparky Lyle, or a Catfish Hunter.
And, while he may be doing two jobs for the Twins, you can bet your last rain check that he gets paid for only one.
Ray may have been having similar thoughts, as he had filed
for salary arbitration; he and the Twins settled on a contract on February 12,
the day before the hearing was scheduled. For the first part of the season he
was plagued by a sore elbow and was mainly in the bullpen, but from late May
onward he was primarily a starter. On June 10 he only lasted a third of an
inning before being hit in the right hand by a line drive by Baltimore’s Rich
Coggins, but he was back on the mound June 16. A win on June 20 gave him a 5-0
record and a ten-game winning streak going back to the previous season.
Ray missed his June 25 start due to his elbow, then didn’t
pitch well his next four starts. At this point he was moved to the bullpen
briefly, his first appearance from there coming on July 16 at home against the
Brewers. Milwaukee correspondent Lou Chapman described the events of that game
in the August 3 Sporting News:
…[Bob] Coluccio had collected three straight singles off starter Dave Goltz when Corbin came on. After displaying pinpoint control by getting both Yount and Don Money on called third strikes, he hit Coluccio on the left side of his helmet on his first pitch to Bobby in the seventh inning.
Coluccio, dazed, took several steps toward Corbin on the mound, then pitched forward on his face. [Brewers manager Del] Crandall and trainer Curt Rayer rushed to administer to Coluccio and the entire Brewer dugout also emptied onto the field. So did many of the Twins and they were joined by occupants from both bullpens. After assuring themselves that Coluccio was all right, all of the Brewers started out for the mound where some of them shouted choice unpleasantries at Corbin.
As the Brewers’ Mike Hegan described it later, “For 45 seconds, we stood around and the umpires knew we were on the brink of something. Bill Haller, one of the umpires, said that whoever takes the first punch is out of the game.”
Haller noted later, “Honestly, I don’t know what happened. I thought everything was under control. Whatever trouble there might have been, I thought it was over. Then, just like that, there were guys fighting all over the place.”
Before the action, the Twins’ Rod Carew had stepped between Corbin and the Brewers’ Scott and Johnny Briggs trying to keep the peace. Soon to join the group were Quilici and Brewer pitcher Clyde Wright.
“That was horse (bleep),” Wright yelled at Quilici, complaining about Corbin’s pitch.
“It wasn’t ordered,” Quilici retorted.
“Yeah, well you guys have been throwing at me this whole series,” Scott charged. He was fed up with being brushed back repeatedly by the Ranger and Twin pitchers.
At this point, Scott reached out and hit Quilici, who, it was reported, went down. That is when, as Haller put it, “All hell broke loose.”
Three or four fighting fronts exploded and Scott was restrained from getting at Corbin by the Twins’ first baseman, 6-3 Craig Kusick, who as it happens is a former high school star from a Milwaukee suburb, Greenfield. Catcher Phil Roof of the Twins also proved a restraining influence and it finally took several Brewers, including Crandall and Bobby Mitchell, to tug the enraged Scott over to the Milwaukee dugout. At that, he dealt Crandall a punishing blow to the ribs in an effort to break loose.
Meanwhile, Darrell Porter got Corbin in a half Nelson and dragged him from the mound to the left of home plate, where Davey May and Pedro Garcia pummeled the Minnesota pitcher. Davey got in some good punches and Corbin later bled from a cut behind his ear and had several fair-sized lumps on his head.
The Brewers had the wide edge overall and Hegan observed, “There were five of us for every one of them. I didn’t see any lumps on any of our guys.”
Tim Johnson, an ex-Marine, gave Twins’ pitcher Vic Albury a good going-over after he hit Yount from behind. Bobby Darwin was the only Minnesota player to more than hold his own. He gave Garcia some shots, then squared off against [Ken] Berry, whom he outweighed by at least 85 pounds.
“I gave him the Ali shuffle,” Berry cracked later, “and then ducked into a left to the head.”
Darwin, when asked if Berry was much of a fighter, quipped, “No, but he can run pretty good.”
Ray relieved again two days later, then moved back into the
rotation, but didn’t pitch in the last two weeks of the season. He wound up
with a 7-6 record and 5.29 ERA in 112 1/3 innings in 29 games, 15 of them
starts.
Over the off-season there were rumors that either Ray or
Dave Goltz would be traded to Detroit for Mickey Stanley, but it didn’t happen.
In the February 15 Sporting News manager Quilici was quoted: “Then there
is Ray Corbin. He suffered with a sore arm all season and still won seven
games. If he can recover, we’ll have an excellent pitching staff.”
Through May 1975 Ray was used mostly in relief, and had a
3.28 ERA. He was then moved back into the starting rotation, where he pitched
pretty well at first, but then his elbow issues got worse. He made his last
appearance on July 28, then underwent surgery on August 12. It was described in
the August 13 Corpus Christi Caller:
Minnesota Twins pitcher Ray Corbin underwent surgery on his right elbow Tuesday and has been lost for the season.
The 26-year-old Corbin had a 6-8 record this season. Dr. Harvey O’Phelan trimmed two intra articular bony spurs in Corbin’s pitching elbow and removed a loose fragment during the one hour, 20 minute operation.
In February 1976 Ray signed a new Minnesota contract. Meanwhile
the Basic Agreement between the players and the owners had expired, and on
March 1 the owners locked the players out of spring training. From a March 13
AP story, as it appeared in the Aberdeen (SD) American News:
Twins call off workouts
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)—Saying they were “playing into the owners’ hands” by conducting unofficial workouts, Minnesota Twins baseball players joined other major leaguers Friday in halting the drill sessions.
“We’re just playing into the owners’ hands by working out at our own expense,” said pitcher Ray Corbin, the Twins’ assistant [to Bert Blyleven] player representative. “The owners see that we’re getting ready on our own and they think they don’t even need to open camp.”
On March 17 Commissioner Bowie Kuhn ordered the camps
opened. On March 30 Ray was sent to the Twins’ minor league camp for reassignment,
and he opened the season with Orlando, which had been Class A when he last
played there but was now part of the Class AA Southern League. A March 31 AP
article said, “Although Twins officials said Corbin was being reassigned
because his arm had not recovered sufficiently from elbow surgery, Corbin said
the arm felt fine when he was pitching Tuesday night.” From the May 8 Sporting
News:
CORBIN ON WAY BACK
Ray Corbin doesn’t expect to stay in Orlando long. Sent to Orlando to get in shape, Corbin pitched six innings, retiring the last eight batters in a row, and received credit for a 6-2 victory over Montgomery April 15. The 6-2 righthander, who was with Minnesota last season, underwent surgery in August for a bone spur and bone chips in his right elbow.
Ray didn’t stay in Orlando long. I didn’t find any more
stories about him, so all I have are the stats, which show that he only made
one more appearance there. Between the two starts he pitched ten innings and
allowed seven earned runs. I don’t know whether he reinjured himself, was
released, or retired, but that was the end of his pro baseball career.
https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/C/Pcorbr101.htm
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/corbira01.shtml