Gavin Floyd

It's the dream of many young people to play professional baseball, but to do it with your brother as a teammate is almost too good to be true. "It's like two dreams come true," Severna Park's Gavin Floyd said at the Ravens' preseason game at PSINet Stadium with his older brother Michael last night. "I had dreamed of playing with my brother and this couldn't be better." The brothers, who rode in style to Baltimore in a limo donated by a Glen Burnie company after driving nine hours from South Carolina, reached agreements to sign with the Philadelphia Phillies late Wednesday night.

Severna Park's Floyd brothers, Gavin and Michael, are about to sign with the Philadelphia Phillies. An agreement was reached late last night between the Phillies and the two Mount St. Joseph High School graduates. "We are thrilled that both boys are now Phillies," said Rodney Floyd, the father of the brothers, speaking for himself and his wife, Elaine, just before midnight. "We are very proud parents." Gavin Floyd, 18, a 6-foot-6 and 215-pound right-handed pitcher, was the Phillies' No. 1 draft pick in June and the fourth player chosen overall.

An overflow of high school baseball talent - 30 of Maryland's top seniors - were all sporting suits at Camden Yards yesterday, getting recognition as well as final instructions for a special day that lies ahead. On Sunday afternoon, they will trade those suits for uniforms, playing in the 20th Crown High School All-Star Game after the 1:30 p.m. Orioles-Montreal game. For Mount St. Joseph pitcher Gavin Floyd, it will be the perfect ending of a stellar prep career and a memorable week, which started with the Philadelphia Phillies drafting him on Tuesday.

Gavin Floyd and Mark Teixeira, linked by neighborhood, high school and top-flight baseball talent, shared one more experience yesterday -- being consecutively chosen in the first round of the major-league draft. Floyd and Teixeira, Mount St. Joseph graduates and residents of the Severna Park community of Chartwell, went fourth to the Philadelphia Phillies and fifth to the Texas Rangers, respectively. They learned about their selections the same way, too, sitting at home with their families, listening on Major League Baseball Radio.

Gavin Floyd Gavin Floyd Mount St. Joseph, baseball A senior All-American, Floyd finished off his high school career in impressive fashion. He threw a 10-inning, two-hit shut out against Calvert Hall in the first round of the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference playoffs, and got the game-winning hit in the 1-0 victory, the 30th win of his career. He struck out 13 batters in taking a no-hit bid into the fifth inning. The 6-foot-5 Floyd is expected to be a first-round draft pick in the upcoming major-league baseball draft.

He's just a kid, yet the flock of grown men are back again, having flown in from across the country simply so they can stare at him. They jostle for position, some in sweat pants, some in silk ties and $300 dress shoes. They stare and they take notes, and then they stare some more. And with every pitch he throws, in unscripted unison, they raise their arms and track the kid with radar, as though he were a jetliner about to land at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, instead of perhaps the best high school pitcher in the nation.

To say that Calvert Hall has Gavin Floyd's number may be a gross understatement. Floyd, Mount St. Joseph's ace right-hander and a projected No. 1 draft pick, is 24-0 in his high school career against A Conference teams and everybody else, except Calvert Hall. Against the Cardinals, the 6-foot-6 Floyd is 1-4, including yesterday's 9-2 defeat at No. 2 Mount St. Joe (6-2). "I hate losing to Calvert Hall, " said a dejected Floyd afterward. As they did last year, the No. 3 Cardinals (7-1)

To say that Calvert Hall has Gavin Floyd's number may be a gross understatement. Floyd, Mount St. Joseph's ace right-hander and a projected No. 1 draft pick, is 24-0 in his high school career against A Conference teams and everybody else, except Calvert Hall. Against the visiting Cardinals, the 6-foot-6 Floyd is 1-4, including yesterday's 9-2 defeat at No. 2 Mount St. Joe (6-2). "I hate losing to Calvert Hall, " said a dejected Floyd afterward. As they did last year, the No. 3 Cardinals (7-1)

Gavin Floyd didn't let bronchitis or the Archbishop Curley baseball team cause him too many problems. The junior 6-foot-5 right-hander produced a complete-game, six-strikeout performance as fourth-ranked Mount St. Joseph sailed past the No. 10 Friars, 7-2, yesterday in a Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference semifinal at Harford Community College's Thomas Run Park in Bel Air. Floyd's seemingly effortless domination of the defending conference...

Calvert Hall's late-season surge continued yesterday with a 9-4 rout of Mount St. Joseph as the visiting Cardinals put themselves in position for their 11th Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A conference baseball title since 1984 and the eighth since 1990. All-Metro left-hander Ryan Kyle (8-1) out-dueled Gaels junior All-Metro ace Gavin Floyd (11-2) for a second straight game and is now 3-1 against the latter over the past two seasons. Floyd, who is 21-3 in two years, fell victim to seven unearned runs in the second inning, all coming after two were out. In contrast, Kyle was brilliant, tossing a four-hitter with nine strikeouts.