Get ready for Jason Heyward

Wednesday, August 5, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry

The conversations between the managers and the opposing third basemen occur organically in the minors, because the manager is often in the third-base coaching box and there is time to kill between innings, between pitches. But over the last month, a handful of third basemen in enemy uniforms have turned to Mississippi Braves manager Phillip Wellman (perhaps best known for this) and said the exact same thing: "He's 19? That's unbelievable."

Who is unbelievable at 19? To find out -- and to learn why the Rays might be ready for a late-season push now -- you must be an ESPN Insider. Insider  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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