VIENNA, Virginia — Vienna is a town of about 17,000 people in high-density Fairfax County, which has a population of just more than 1 million and is just west of the nation’s capital. It is about 10 miles from the baseball field at James Madison High in Vienna to the White House in Washington, a city that was without a Major League Baseball team from 1972 until the Nationals came to town in 2005.
In the D.C. suburbs, despite the trappings of million-dollar homes and high-powered, highly paid lawyers and lobbyists, a baseball culture exists in Vienna that is equal to or better than some small towns in middle America. “We call it the town of champions,” said Mark Gjormand, who grew up playing Vienna Little League and has been the head varsity baseball coach there at James Madison High for 30 years.
It is here where Bryce Eldridge, who was born at nearby Fair Oaks Hospital in Fairfax in October of 2004 and is the top prospect of the Giants, was nurtured and where his former coaches and teammates eagerly await his arrival to the majors with a team nearly 2,900 miles away in San Francisco.
“He is proud of where he came from. When he comes to town, people know who he is,” Gjormand said.
One of Eldridge’s best friends is Ryan Halloran, also a teammate as a senior captain when the public Madison High won the Virginia state title in 2023 – the sixth in the storied history of a school that has produced four Major Leaguers. Now a student at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Halloran made the trip to California last year to see Eldridge play for Single-A San Jose.
“We played a round of golf, took a mini trip to one of the beaches and even went and got some steaks in San Francisco and saw Oracle and the Golden Gate Bridge,” noted Halloran, who was on hand when Eldridge hit two homers and a double in one game.
His mother, Beth Halloran, was the team mom for Madison High from 2019-23 and is good friends with Beth Kenney, the mother of Eldridge.
“Oh my gosh, we are on the MiLB app every day. We are always exchanging texts with other moms about how he is doing,” Beth Halloran said. “We are following what Buster Posey says” about a possible promotion for the young first baseman.
San Francisco Giants prospect Bryce Eldridge with friends after a 2024 Single-A San Jose Giants game. (Photo courtesy of Beth Halloran)
Eldridge began this season at Double-A Richmond – about 100 miles south of Vienna – before being promoted to Triple-A Sacramento, where he had 14 homers and an amazing 48 RBI in his first 47 games at that level. He has nine home runs in August and an overall OPS of .849 with Sacramento.
Back on the East Coast, his friends eagerly await his next promotion – to the Giants. That could come Sept. 1 when rosters expand, or certainly early next season.
“I already know San Francisco is already jumping about the talent headed their way,” Ryan Halloran wrote in a text. “But they will soon come to find out that it will be even easier to rally around their guys once he steps between the lines at Oracle. Just like a bunch of other friends and families in Vienna we’re just itching to get the text or phone call hearing he got the call up and figuring out the fastest way to get to his debut. Hoping Mr. (Buster) Posey (in the front office) lets the boy do his thing here very soon.”
No other Virginia public school has produced more than four Major Leaguers, according to TheBaseballCube.com. Eldridge is in line to be No. 5, though he does have company. Former Madison teammate James Triantos, a second-round pick of the Chicago Cubs in 2021 as an infielder, has been at Triple-A Iowa in the Cubs’ system this year while ex-Madison High and James Madison University standout Kyle Hayes has played for Triple-A Omaha in the Kansas City Royals’ farm system as a catcher.
Despite an impressive tradition, it has been more than 30 years since a Madison High grad made the majors. That was Jim McNamara, a catcher for, yes, the Giants for part of 1992 and 1993. “I’m not getting caught up on when or if it happens this year, but if it does, it does,” Eldridge told this news organization earlier this year. “I’m just going to trust in Buster (Posey) and the front office. Whatever their decision is, I’m ready to go whenever they call me.”
While Eldridge has focused on first base, he saw action in the outfield in his first pro season. The lefty hitter would not be the first Virginia high school product to play in the outfield for the Giants in the past 10 years. Stafford County’s Jarrett Parker, drafted in the second round out of the University of Virginia by the Giants in 2010, played in 130 games for San Francisco from 2015-17. Eldridge would give the current Giants another Virginia connection – veteran right-hander Justin Verlander grew up near Richmond and played in college at Old Dominion.
MADISON MAGIC
The Vienna Inn, which has been around since 1960, is a popular spot for Madison High athletic teams and their parents, especially after wins. Marty Volk, the owner for about 25 years, is a big supporter of Madison athletics. The school is about a mile away, and the cozy restaurant – with newspaper clippings on the wall from decades past – is where many baseball fans gathered the day Eldridge was drafted in the first round by the Giants in 2023.
But baseball success extends beyond Madison High in this suburb.
Ryan Halloran, Bryce Eldridge and Jason Cassidy at Madison after clinching the district title in 2023 for James Madison High of Vienna, Virginia. (Photo courtesy of Beth Halloran)
A Vienna squad has won the Virginia state Little League title nine times since 1957, with the latest in 2023. Vienna American Legion Post 180 won its second straight state title in July. For many years, every July 4 at Waters Field in Vienna meant an All-Star game of local American Legion standouts.
The Madison High girls’ basketball team won its fourth straight title in 2023, and the Warhawks excel in other sports as well.
“Growing up in Vienna, every kid wants to play at Madison,” said Zach Perkins, who did just that in baseball before starring at Division III Washington & Lee in Lexington, Virginia.
“I grew up watching Madison High baseball games since I was 12,” said Kyle Novak, who starred for the Warhawks before becoming a .317 career hitter at Division I JMU in Harrisonburg.
Novak has played this season for Tri-City in the independent Frontier League. “I went to Madison High and that was the best decision I ever made,” he said.
Gjormand took over as coach at Madison for the late Don Roth, who played minor league ball for Stockton in the Orioles’ system in the late 1960s. Roth went to George Mason High in Falls Church, Virginia and passed in 2020.
“Pudge” Gjormand has led the Warhawks to four state titles and won his 400th game earlier this year. In 2021 he was inducted into the National High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
“I think he coaches his guys hard and he prepares them,” Marlin Ikenberry, the head coach at JMU, said of Gjormand. “Baseball is a hard game anyway but he prepares them to execute and compete. That is what you want out of a high school player coming to college.”
Eldridge has a special bond with his fellow seniors from the class of 2023 – eight of whom went on to play in college. The slugger hit .422 with eight homers as a Madison senior and struck out 66 batters in 39.2 innings on the mound.
San Francisco Giants’ Bryce Eldridge (88) connects for a two-run home run against the Texas Rangers in the ninth inning of a spring training baseball game at Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Arizona on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. The San Francisco Giants defeated the Texas Rangers 6-1. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
EARLY DAYS FOR ELDRIDGE
Eldridge, who has grown to 6-foot-7, was 9 when Gjormand first saw him play baseball. Gjormand was coaching his youngest son, Trevor, in the Reston Little League and their teams faced each other when the two boys were 9, 10 and 11. Trevor Gjormand was teammates with Eldridge on the state title squad in 2023 at Madison and now plays at Division III Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg.
“Some kids dominate in Little League because they are big. Bryce was big but he also had talent,” coach Gjormand said of Eldridge, a product of Vienna Little League.
Josh Gjormand, Trevor’s older brother, played for the Division III national champs at Lynchburg University in Virginia in 2023 and ended his college career this past spring at EMU. Sam Gjormand, the daughter of Beth and Mark, is on the coaching staff at Division I College of Charleston in South Carolina as the general manager after graduating from JMU. She is believed to be the first female to recruit for a Division I baseball program.
Eldridge, drafted as a two-way player, was a freshman at Madison High in 2020 when the pandemic canceled the season. But before that happened, coach Gjormand recalls a scrimmage against defending state champion Lake Braddock in which Eldridge hit a rocket for a double down the line.
“As a freshman, Bryce was mature beyond his age. His work ethic and talent stood out,” noted Chris Polymeropoulos, a senior for Madison in 2020. Eldridge was then part of a state title team as a sophomore and soon after that committed to play at Alabama. As Eldridge’s stock grew, coach Gjormand kept in contact with college coaches and then pro scouts. Now Gjormand and the rest of the Vienna baseball community are waiting for the word when Eldridge is called up to the Giants. For now, he is the 13th-best prospect in the game, per MLB.com.
And baseball-crazy Vienna is waiting for the next move. “It is hard to put into words how grateful we are to have landed here,” said Beth Halloran, whose three sons all played for Vienna Little League and for Madison High.
“Throughout his minor league career, it’s been a pleasure to see his resilience, work ethic, humility and the passion with getting the opportunity to play every day,” Ryan Halloran said of Eldridge.
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VIRGINIA TO NOCAL PIPELINE: Pulaski, Virginia native Ed Goodson was an infielder for the Giants in the 1970s, and teammates with Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Gaylord Perry … Ex-San Francisco catcher Kirt Manwaring played in the Valley Baseball League of Virginia while in college at Coastal Carolina … Giants broadcaster Dave Flemming went to high school in Alexandria, Virginia, just a few miles east of Vienna … Former Giants reliever Gary Lavelle became a successful high school baseball coach in southeast Virginia at Greenbrier Christian Academy and he went into the Virginia Baseball Coaches Association (VBCA) Hall of Fame last year … Chris Marinak, a former Madison assistant under Gjormand, is a high-level executive in the front office of Major League Baseball … Madison lost at home 1-0 in nine innings in March in a non-district game with the Miller School of Albemarle, located near Charlottesville. The head coach of that school is new Hall of Famer Billy Wagner, who grew up in southwest Virginia … Eldridge’s grandfather Ben, who died last year, was born in Richmond and was involved in a noted bluegrass band, The Seldom Scene … Verlander posted the 263rd win of his career on July 23. The most MLB wins by a Virginia native is 266, by Hall of Famer Eppa Rixey, who grew up in Charlottesville and played at the University of Virginia … The other Major Leaguers from Madison High are Mike Wallace, Bob Brower and Jay Franklin, who pitched for the Padres just weeks after his high school graduation in 1971 after he was the second overall pick in the draft.
Editor’s note: David Driver is a native of Harrisonburg, Virginia and played baseball at Turner Ashby High and Division III EMU. He is the co-author of “From Tidewater to the Shenandoah: Snapshots from Virginia’s Rich Baseball Legacy,” available on the websites of Amazon and Barnes & Noble and at daytondavid.com. He is the former sports editor of papers in Baltimore and Harrisonburg.
