BRAVE REVIEW: Brothers Justin (left) and B.J. Upton, who grew up in the baseball hotbed of Virginia, are looking to help the Braves mold an exciting image this season. (Hyosub Shin/MCT/ZUMA24.com)
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Landscape creates destiny.
Growing up in the Tidewater area of Virginia, B.J. and Justin Upton were surrounded by talented young players. David Wright was one of them. Wright played shortstop on an AAU travel team, B.J. Upton played second base.
B.J.’s brother, Justin, was too young to play on that team, but he was always hanging around, taking batting practice and playing out in the field before games.
Now the Upton brothers are teammates with the Braves, in the same division as the Mets, playing against Wright after B.J. left the Rays as a free agent and signed a five-year, $72.25 million contract with Atlanta. Eight weeks later, the Braves acquired Justin in a monster trade with the Diamondbacks.
The Upton brothers have found a baseball home together in a division where the stars have aligned for many of those Virginia players. Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman also is in that group.
“It’s pretty amazing,’’ Justin, 25, said yesterday. “All those guys were ahead of me and everybody knew they had the chance to play at the next level. You could see the dream out there, something to shoot for watching them play.’’
“This is an opportunity you dream about,’’ B.J., 28, said of playing with his brother.
“We all worked pretty hard at it,’’ B.J. said of that wealth of Virginia talent. “It’s more exciting to see than surprising because the talent was there, the hard work was there and we had the teachers. Everything was there for us.’’
Yes, it was. Seven winters ago, I went to that area of Virginia to visit with a young David Wright and saw all those players working at a charity hitting camp, trying to help the next generation from that area.
In many ways now, the NL East is a two-tier division with the Nationals, Braves and aging Phillies on top and the Mets and Marlins on the bottom. The Upton brothers will be a hurdle for the Mets to clear for years to come.
Funny how baseball works out. The Braves have a fantasy league outfield featuring Justin in left, B.J. in center and the dynamic Jason Heyward, 23, in right as the Mets try to piece together an outfield.
“This outfield looks great on paper,’’ B.J. said, “and already it’s like we’ve been playing together forever.’’
The Upton brothers’ lockers are next to each other in a corner of the Braves’ clubhouse. B.J. wears No. 2. Justin wears No. 8. Now that Chipper Jones has retired, the Braves have a new identity.
B.J. and Justin will push each other in a brotherly way to be better.
“There will be competition,’’ Justin promised.
There will be less pressure than there was in Arizona.
“I caught a lot of the backlash in Arizona, but that comes with the territory when you’ve had success somewhere,’’ Justin said. “It didn’t bother me.’’
B.J. will no longer have to watch his brother’s late night at-bats from out West.
“I can see it all first-hand,’’ he said with a smile. “He’ll know what I did and I’ll know what he did when the game’s over.’’
Wright and B.J. congratulated each other when they each signed big new contracts. B.J. attended Wright’s fund-raiser back home last month for Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters.
“He failed to mention that he got engaged,’’ B.J. said with a smile.
He later asked Wright, “Bro, did you get engaged?’’
Wright replied to B.J.: “Yeah, I didn’t tell you because you’d wear me out.’’
You can just imagine the trash talking that will take place in the NL East.
“We talk as much as we can, everybody from that area,’’ B.J. said.
B.J. and Justin were hoping to play maybe one year together at some point in their careers. Now they have a baseball lifetime ahead of them as teammates.
“Little did we know,’’ B.J. said.
“It’s crazy how it’s all worked out,’’ Justin said. “It’s going to be fun.’’
Home again on the baseball field.