Tam’s varsity baseball team has a special weapon in their arsenal: the Jordan brothers. Chris Jordan, the ace of the team’s pitching staff, enjoys the chemistry he has with his younger brother Kevin, who has caught for his older brother ever since being promoted to varsity halfway through last year.

“[It is] kind of weird having my brother and a freshman on the team. But hey, I get to make fun of him,” said Chris.

Coordination, skill, and comfort are evident skills of the two brothers when they play together. It is clear that years of pitching and catching in their backyard have helped the duo to perform well on the diamond. “They seem to know exactly what each other want to do at any given moment. The chemistry they have is less like brothers and more like twins,” said sophomore Elliot Dorenbaum, who plays for Tam JV and has known the brothers for years.

Despite his competence on the field, Kevin still gets hazed by his older sibling. “Last year, they threw me in the pool at the team party,” Kevin recalled.

“[Tam graduate] Alex Ritchie came up with the plan. But I was the enforcer,” Chris confirmed. Even though Kevin is the youngest on the team, he doesn’t want to be known as its rookie. Therefore, it’s obviously his brother’s duty to treat him like one.

“You’d better not throw me in the pool this year,” Kevin told Chris. Even when they make mistakes, the brothers shrug them off with humor. “I changed up a [hand] sign on him once. I said I was going to throw a curveball, when really I threw a fastball slightly above his head. No injury,” said Chris.

“No injury?” Kevin laughed back. “Oh, you’re the sweetest.” But the dynamic one-two punch squad is not all giggles. The brothers have sometimes faced off as adversaries. “I just hope for a peaceful dinner after their head to heads,” said the Jordan mother, Lisa Jordan.

If Chris were to get rattled a little during a game, Kevin is confident that he can calm down his brother. “I know when to talk to him, and most importantly, when not to,” Kevin said.

The Jordan brothers have also worked together on other sports in the past. They have both been on Tam’s basketball team. They also played football, tag, and other physical games when they were younger.

“They were competitive, like all little boys,” Lisa Jordan said. Chris may have only a number of games left with a Tam jersey on, but he doesn’t only have to look to Kevin to keep the legacy running; there is in fact a third Jordan brother, 11-year-old Tam Valley student named Daniel.

“I like left field” Daniel says.

“[Daniel], the lefty surprise,” said Chris.

“He is the best. Mega sleeper,” said Kevin. So far this year, Chris is posting a solid 2.39 ERA across a team high 26.1 innings pitched. Kevin is hitting .350, and leads the team’s catchers in thwarting base stealers at four put outs. The Jordan Brothers are a force to be reckoned with.

Written by Joe Laland & Aaron Newman. This article originally appeared in the April 2011 issue.