Cory Doyne’s looks stand out, but his stats really deserve notice

Cory Doyne wears stirrup socks, baggy pants, a flat bill cap and prescription Oakley Radar sunglasses into games. (JASON M. HIRSCHFELD/SPECIAL TO THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT )

By RICH RADFORD
The Virginian-Pilot

NORFOLK

When Cory Doyne strolls out of the Norfolk Tides bullpen, one thing is guaranteed and another is a near-certainty.

The guarantee is that you've never seen a player quite like him.

The near-certainty is he's going to get batters out.

From the flattened brim of his cap, to his oversized pants, to his throwback stirrup socks - the rest of the team wears solid-colored socks - he's an original.

Doyne's pants are so loose that he looks like a 1950s player in a wool uniform. But then again, he also sports a pair of space-age Oakley Radar prescription sunglasses. The black rims are so big and flat on top that Doyne must wear his baseball cap with a flat bill to accommodate both.

On top of that, he has recently been shaping his earlobes, stretching his piercings into flesh tunnels. That's when tubing, rather than just an earring, is inserted into a piercing.

Did we mention his tattoos? He has a bunch: tribal flames, his zodiac sign, Japanese script, his last name in old English typeface.

"I guess you could say I'm my own man living in my own world," said the 25-year-old native of Tampa, Fla.

You could also say that his job might be driving him to be different.

"When you're a relief pitcher, you try to find ways to pass the long day," Doyne said. "When you're already in the sixth inning and you run into that inning where people are running around the bases like someone threw a quarter in the merry-go-'round, you'll do anything you can to pass the time."

Tides manager Gary Allen-son has no problem with Doyne's idiosyncrasies.

"All you want to write about is the way he wears his cap, the socks he wears and all that other stupid stuff," he said. "Have you been paying any attention to how he's pitching?"

Doyne is 17 for 18 in save opportunities this season. When he picked up his 13th save May 24, he surpassed the team-high total of 12 saves that Heath Bell recorded over the course of the entire previous season.

Nice stats for a guy who was picked off the scrap heap of minor-league free agents after the St. Louis Cardinals failed to re-sign him last fall.

On a Tides team tied for the worst record in all of Triple-A baseball through Wednesday, Doyne was tied for the most saves at that level. Only Chris Booker of Columbus matched Doyne's total.

He has other stats that are more astounding. Opponents are hitting .130 against the 6-foot-2, 225-pound righthander for the season. And he's given up only two hits in his past 14 appearances.

With the Baltimore Orioles' high-priced and overused bullpen struggling - the O's blew late-game leads at Seattle both Monday and Tuesday - Doyne could be on the cusp of making his debut in the major leagues.

An appearance by Doyne is anything but boring. His fastball has been clocked at 98 mph this season. And when he follows that with an 83 mph breaking ball, batters can look foolish.

Of course, Doyne can also make himself look foolish, as he did a couple of weeks ago when he threw a pickoff attempt to first base with no teammate covering. The ball bounced on the warning track and hit the retaining wall as the runner ran to second.

"J.R. House came out to the mound after that and said, 'I crossed my arms! That means nobody's covering first, he's playing behind the dude!' " Doyne recalled. "I told him, 'I might want to remember that next time. Fill me in.'

"I've done dumb things like that before. I once went into a full wind-up with a runner at first because I forgot he was there. That was a pretty easy stolen base for him."

As odd as he looks on the mound, Doyne would be more noticeable if he didn't wear a long-sleeved shirt beneath his jersey. The shirt covers a variety of tattoos on both arms, from tribal flames shooting down his upper right arm to his zodiac sign (he's a Leo), on the inside of his left arm.

"I'd wear a short undersleeve, except the long one is the only one where I don't get any static in my shirt," Doyne said.

With all the piercings and the tattoos, it's not surprising that Doyne wants to make an appearance on the cable television show "Miami Ink," which is all about tattoo artists and their subjects.

Doyne has even picked out the artist he'd like working on his canvas of flesh. It's "the bald guy," or Ami James.

The pain of a needle, whether loaded with ink or not, doesn't bother Doyne, who pierced his own ear when he was 14.

"I asked my parents if they'd let me get my ear pierced and they said no," he said, "so I found the fattest sewing needle in the house, grabbed two pieces of ice, numbed my ear, and did it myself."

With that approach, why would a professional hit man with a piece of lumber in his hands scare him?

Rich Radford, (757) 446-2463

rich.radford@pilotonline.com