Corey wired about making his PCL debut

Victoria Sun

Tuesday, May 7, 2002 | 9:56 a.m.

For about the last four weeks, Las Vegas 51s pitcher Bryan Corey was on a strict diet of 80 to 90 cans of Ensure per week, the liquid supplement usually ingested by mature adults.

Chocolate. Strawberry. Vanilla.

He has tasted them all, and for added variety he would drink fruit shakes.

If Corey could sip it through a straw, he inhaled it, because that was all he could eat.

But not being able to chow down on pizzas, hamburgers and steaks wasn't nearly as difficult as not being able to pitch.

"Every day I've wanted to be out there," Corey said Monday night. "We've got a good team.

"It's been frustrating to sit back and watch us win a lot of games and not have any part of it. And for us to lose quite a few games and not be able to do anything about it."

In some respects, Corey's frustration ended in the 51s' 8-4 loss to the Iowa Cubs at Cashman Field.

Before the game, he was activated from the disabled list and made his season debut, relieving starter Mike Johnson in the seventh inning.

Corey surrendered consecutive singles to start the inning, then struck out Hee Seop Choi and induced Angel Echevarria to fly out. Jayson Bass then singled in Ivanon Coffie and Corey struck out Adams.

In the eighth, Corey gave up four consecutive hits that led to two runs before being relieved by Jeff Williams. Corey's line read six hits, three earned runs, no walks and two strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings.

"It felt good to be out there," Corey said. "Obviously the results were not what I hoped for, but it could have been better, it could have been worse.

"My command was OK. My sinker was flat."

Exactly five weeks ago today before the season started, Corey was standing at first base waiting to catch a ground ball from the shortstop when he was hit under his left ear by a ball as a player was hitting fungos.

The impact shattered Corey's jaw in two places. The injury was the worst of his 10-year career and put him on the disabled list for the first time.

"By the time I had heard something, 'Heads up,' it had already hit me," Corey recalled. "It was kind of a freak accident. But coming off the spring I had, it was harder to take, especially the first couple of days."

Corey had his jaw wired shut, making it a challenge to talk, much less eat. Still, he played catch the day after, then took a week off before throwing in the bullpen daily.

"I've been doing that so I could stay ready," Corey said. "So while I wasn't able to pitch I didn't lose anything from all of spring training."

The Dodgers had signed Corey as a free agent. He spent all of spring training with the big league team and learned a week before camp broke that he would be starting his fifth season at triple-A, this time with the 51s.

He just didn't anticipate spending the first five weeks of the season at Cashman Field in plain clothes.

Corey was in Las Vegas less than an hour when the incident occurred. He drove to Las Vegas that Tuesday morning from his home in Mesa, Ariz., and headed straight to the field.

"I figured I could sit here, pout, feel sorry for myself, but that's not going to do any good," he said. "My goal as is everybody's is to get to LA. If I could take something positive out of something negative then it's only better for me."