Virginia's Boy Wonders

Cuddyer was the oldest of the group, by nearly four years, and by the time he was 11 Townsend was introducing him as a "future professional baseball player." Townsend knew that his star pupils had potential but worried they would not get enough training in the local youth leagues, so he began to expand the Blasters program. In 1993 Townsend had only a 14-and-under squad led by Cuddyer, so he talked two of his adult-league teammates, Manny Upton and Allan Erbe, into coaching a new 11-and-under team that would include Manny's nine-year-old son, B.J. (Manny's six-year-old son, Justin, was not old enough to play and served as the batboy.)

B.J. Upton played second base for the 11-and-under Blasters, and Wright played shortstop, a middle infield with terrific upside that wasn't yet apparent. B.J. was so skinny that coaches constantly ordered him to bunt, fearing that he could not muscle the ball to the outfield. Wright, on the other hand, was so pudgy that opposing coaches told each other, "We can take advantage of that chunky shortstop." Whenever the Blasters hit the road, they took with them a bag of baseballs and a bag of Cool Whip lids. If it rained, players retreated to their hotel and found a conference room where they could hit the lids.

The Blasters did not charge dues—the team raised money through fund-raisers and other donations—but they did have contracts, mandating that every player maintain at least a 2.5 grade-point average. Townsend scouted youth leagues for talent, and Erbe wrote playbooks filled with diagrams and explanations on how to cover bunts and defend first-and-third situations. Wright often complained that Erbe spent too much time on defense, but years later, when Wright was in the Mets' farm system, Erbe received an e-mail from the address Met3Bagger. It read, "I play well off the line and I run a lot of coverage 2," a direct reference to one of the Blasters' bunt defenses.

By 1994 the Blasters had six teams, one for each age group from nine through 14. B.J. Upton, who had been playing with kids two years older, moved down a year to team with Reynolds, the lanky infielder with huge hands whose family had moved to Virginia Beach from Kentucky. Reynolds had initially signed on with a rival league, whose president soon took Reynolds out of his age group; the league official was concerned about "the safety of other players" because Reynolds was hitting the ball too hard for anyone else his age to catch it.

Townsend was building a powerhouse, and he tried to lure Sinnen, his former player at Virginia Wesleyan, to coach one of the teams. But Sinnen wanted a challenge and opted to coach for the Drillers instead. His best player was a soft-handed shortstop from Virginia Beach who had slipped under Townsend's radar. Zimmerman was the smoothest fielder in Hampton Roads, but he had a hard time putting on weight and a lot of coaches assumed he would not be able to generate power. "I offered to throw him a party if he could ever crack 100 pounds," says Zimmerman's father, Keith.

When Ryan Zimmerman was 10, in his first season with the Drillers, he went 27 for 32 in an AAU tournament in Kansas City, Mo. When Wright was 12, he hit seven triples in a doubleheader in Manassas, Va. And when B.J. Upton was 16, facing Drillers ace Justin Jones, he hit a 92-mph fastball off Jones's left forearm, sending him to Sentara Leigh Hospital in Norfolk with a bone bruise.

Stories about the boys started to sound like myths. "We grew up," says B.J. Upton, now 24 and the Rays' centerfielder, "by pushing each other all the time."

IN 1997 the Twins drafted Cuddyer with the No. 9 pick, making Townsend's earliest prediction come true. Wright, Reynolds, Zimmerman and the Uptons were not even in high school yet, but they understood the significance. From then on, scouts would have to stop by Hampton Roads in case another Cuddyer came along. "I remember telling myself, I want to do the same thing he did," says Wright.

By the time Wright turned 16, his baby fat had turned to muscle and he had developed the swing he uses today. In the 1999 AAU national championships in Cleveland, he hit a 400-foot rocket over the centerfield fence that slammed into an old oak tree. As Wright rounded the bases, a six-foot branch fell from the tree and landed in somebody's backyard. Video of the blast, taken through a chain-link fence, became an underground favorite in Chesapeake. Ron Smith, who coached Wright's team along with Erbe, watched the grainy footage again last month and said, "Just like Roy Hobbs."

The future big leaguers all knew each other, but because of age differences and AAU affiliations, no more than two of them had ever played on the same team. But in 2000 a Virginia Beach coach, Lee Banks, put together a fall showcase team called the Mets, finally bringing the group together. It was one of the greatest collections of teenage talent ever assembled. The roster included Wright, Reynolds, Zimmerman and B.J. Upton. Justin Upton, still too young, was a pinch runner. For the first time they were neither Blasters nor Drillers; they were representing Hampton Roads, finishing the work that Cuddyer started. "Nobody," says Cuddyer, 29, "is more proud of those guys than I am."