By Joseph Staszewski
Jack Curran’s legacy was given one final honor that spilled over into the CHSAA Class AA intersectional baseball final last weekend.
The league announced that the trophy awarded to the most valuable player of the AA championship would now be forever named after Curran, the legendary Archbishop Molloy coach who died earlier this year.
It’s a fitting tribute by a league that traditionally and usually quickly gets things like this right. Curran was the face of Catholic and New York City baseball for 55 years and holds nearly every coaching record, including 17 CHSAA city baseball titles and 30 appearances in the title game. That means in more than half the seasons he coached Curran was playing for the championship and more times than not winning.
Molloy is also the last team to repeat, doing so in 1976-77. That came in a span of 14 years where the Stanners won the title 11 times, including a record four straight.
The award was given to St. Raymond starting pitcher Steven Figueroa after he tossed a two-hit shut out in the Raven’s 7-0 win over Farrell Sunday at Fordham University.
This year’s Molloy club, despite their best efforts, couldn’t get to the final and win a title for Curran, a Bronx native, as they had hoped. Molloy saw its season end with a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to Cardinal Spellman May 31 in the loser’s bracket.
The award is a great way for Curran’s legacy and teachings to be passed along to more than just the players at Molloy. Twenty years from now the trophy’s recipient will likely ask his coach, sibling or parent, “Who is the man whose name is on this thing?” if he doesn’t pay attention to the announcement from the load speakers. The response will be, “Jack Curran, only one of the greatest high school coaches ever.”
Just when you think you’ve learned everything Curran had accomplished, there is always more.
A reporter in the Fordham press box asked who was the youngest coach to win a CHSAA Class AA baseball title with St. Raymond and headman Marc DeLuca, 34, almost ensured to win the school’s first crown.
The answer, of course, was Jack Curran. Who else? He was 32 when he won his first baseball crown in 1963. It’s likely another distinction that will never be matched.
So kudos to the CHSAA for leaving people one final reminder of Curran’s impact on baseball in New York City. From the looks of it, we are only scratching the surface of understanding just how deep it goes.
