DATE: Saturday, June 7, 1997                TAG: 9706060023

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   30 lines

TWO TOP BASEBALL PICKSTWO GREAT BRIDGE HIGH SCHOOLS TEAMMATES ARE DRAFTED IN BASEBALL'S FIRST ROUND.

Most high school baseball coaches only dream of ever having a player drafted in Major League Baseball's first round.

On Tuesday, against astronomical odds, two Great Bridge High School players were picked in the opening round.

And their last names both start with the letters ``cu.'' Figure those odds.

Mike Cuddyer, a shortstop who batted .500 this year, was the ninth pick overall. The Minnesota Twins want him and will probably have to pay more than $1 million to get him.

John Curtice, a lefthanded pitcher with a 95 mph fast ball, was the 17th pick. The Boston Red Sox will have to part with about $1 million to land him.

They were only the second pair of high school teammates to be picked in the first round in the draft's 32 years and the first pair picked in the first round since 1972, when California teammates were the 12th and 20th picks - far lower, you'll notice, than the Chesapeake players.

Cuddyer and Curtice even played in the same T-ball league.

Suddenly there are more Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox fans in Chesapeake than ever before.

Congratulations to the young men and to their coach, Greg Jennings. They accomplished, as staff writer Ed Miller noted, one of the rarest double plays in baseball history.

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