Growing up on sunshine and waves in San Diego, Kevin Correia has always been a California kid. And just like countless other Southern California youngsters, his main hobby was surfing the famous Pacific Ocean swells.
He loves the sport so much that it has affected many important decisions in his life — such as where to attend college.
“I liked the location (of Cal Poly) because with the coast there, I could continue surfing and get an education at the same time,” Correia said. “It was the perfect place for me coming from San Diego to still have that coastal experience.”
But nowadays, Correia’s job has taken him far away from the California beaches and has washed him on to the East Coast. Correia, a starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, is now a year removed from his first Major League All-Star selection in 2011 and is playing an integral part on a team in search of its first winning season and playoff berth since 1992. And in a rotation that is sprinkled with outstanding pitching, the right-hander came into September on pace to finish the year with a double-digit win figure for the fourth straight season.
Arguably his best year on the mound though, came last season when he finished 12-11 with a 4.79 ERA and was regarded as the ace of the Pittsburgh pitching staff. His National League All-Star team selection was the fourth in Cal Poly alumni history and the first since Hall-of-Famer Ozzie Smith’s nod in 1996.
With several key additions to the rotation this season, Correia and the Pirates figure to vie for either the National League Central regular season title or a wild card berth come October to make good on unfinished business from 2011.
“It gets harder, not easier, in the second half (of the season),” Correia said of the Pirates’ late season fade last year. “It looks like this team is a lot more up to (making the playoffs) than we were last year.
“Our No. 1 goal is to win the division, but if that doesn’t happen there’s still other playoff spots for us and our main goal is just to make the postseason and see what happens from there.”
Correia’s road to becoming a playoff contender in the majors started in El Cajon, Calif. where he played a year of junior college baseball at Grossmont College. Correia transferred to Cal Poly for his sophomore campaign where he impressed on the mound for the Mustangs.
“To this day he has one of the best arms I’ve ever worked with,” Kansas pitching coach and former Mustangs pitching coach Ryan Graves said. “He was long and loose, had a sheer power arm and it was fun to watch him grow as a pitcher.”
Correia went 17-10 with six complete games for Cal Poly and was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the fourth round of the 2002 Major League Baseball Draft.
But prior to his selection that year, Correia decided to stay at Cal Poly when he was originally drafted after his junior campaign in 2001. He turned down an offer from the St. Louis Cardinals in order to complete his senior season.
Staying that extra year at the collegiate level offered Correia an opportunity to grow as both a baseball player and a student, he admitted. Correia realized that although he already had offers from professional teams, it still wasn’t likely that he’d reach the major league level without the experience that final year in school would offer.
Former Cal Poly skipper and current Kansas head coach Ritch Price remembers Correia’s senior season. To date, it was one of the best single-season pitching performances Price has witnessed in his 29-year collegiate coaching career, he said, made even more remarkable considering that it came when top-notch pitching was at a premium in college baseball.
“It was by far the best year anybody had for us,” Price said of Correia’s 11-win senior season, the second-highest total in Cal Poly history. “Those were the hot bats days too. The bats were really juiced, so for him to go out and put up to those kinds of numbers against those kinds of bats was very impressive.”
And because of his decision to stay and pitch at Cal Poly, a performance which he likened to low-level minor league baseball, Correia moved up the ladder quickly once he was drafted by the Giants’ organization.
Correia — called up in 2003 — was the first player taken in his draft class to reach the big leagues.
“That doesn’t happen very often,” Graves said. “Getting up (to the majors) that quick is definitely very impressive.”
With San Francisco, the success didn’t come instantaneously, but Correia earned several spot starts and spent much of his time in the bullpen. As he muscled out more and more wins, the San Diego native was traded to the Padres in 2008 and proved to be worthy of a spot in the starting rotation by 2009.
And after two double-digit win seasons in San Diego, Correia certainly proved his worth by drawing on experiences from his alma mater.
“Having to go to class and study on your own you just learn a lot of responsibility,” Correia said. “And that kind of carried over to the baseball field in being committed to something. And once I committed myself, I was able to see some improvement.”
Since joining the Pirates from San Diego three years ago, Correia has put up impressive numbers, including three consecutive seasons with a win percentage of .500 or better.
Recently, Correia has faltered a bit on the mound, including one five-game losing streak earlier this season. But he’s remedied poor starts with even better streaks of brilliance, such as a career-long seven game winning streak in late July. He’s even made several appearances out of the bullpen, including a two-inning relief performance in a game that lasted 19 innings against the Cardinals on Aug. 19.
No matter his record, though, Correia says he is staying focused on what matters most — getting his team to the postseason. And because his team is annually tabbed as an underdog to make the playoffs, he’ll have some fun while doing it, even if fun doesn’t entail hitting the San Diego surf.