NASHVILLE, Tenn. — As a son of New Hampshire, Tim Corbin knew families like the Espositos long before he ever filled out a lineup card or sat around the kitchen table on a recruiting visit. Michael and Roseann Esposito and their sons, Jason and Mark, happened to live in Bethany, Connecticut. But from their Italian surname to a no-nonsense forthrightness—not to mention a passion for baseball—they are a New England archetype still far from extinct from Cape Cod to the Connecticut coast.
Nearly two decades ago, those shared New England roots helped Vanderbilt’s head coach forge a bond with the family as Jason, then a highly-touted high school standout, weighed options from college scholarships to MLB signing bonuses. In laying out Vanderbilt’s mission, a lifetime taught Corbin that he would have no greater ally than Roseann.
“A mom looks at it from a unique perspective,” Corbin said. “Baseball is baseball, but who’s going to take care of my kid? Who’s going to watch over him, hold him to a standard, discipline him? I think when moms look at that, they’re not looking at an MLB uniform. For the next three or four years, is the group of people over there going to look after my child?
“A lot of moms up in New England are that way. And in a lot of ways, Roseann was a very firm voice inside that family, making clear ‘No, my kid’s going to school. He could go play professional baseball, but that’s not how my husband and I look at it.’”
Esposito chose Vanderbilt. He inherited third base from a legend in Pedro Alvarez and emerged as one of the best defensive players in program history. He was an All-American and RBI machine, part of Vanderbilt’s first College World Series team in 2011. What he contributed is easy to find in the record books. What he learned prepared him for the life that awaited—starting a family, finding a calling and always growing. And it’s what he learned here that brought him back to Vanderbilt.
After more than a decade playing and coaching professional baseball, including as a hitting instructor with the Cleveland Guardians for the past eight years, Esposito returns to his alma mater as an assistant coach. If coming to Vanderbilt the first time helped him discover what was possible, coming back gives him a chance to return the favor for a new generation of players sitting around kitchen tables and debating the best path forward.
It’s why, with the possible exception of learning she was going…