"Aug. 31, 2000: The Boston Red Sox traded Chris Reitsma and John Curtice to the Cincinnati Reds for Dante Bichette.
With a month left in the season, the Red Sox trailed the first-place Yankees by five games but were just one game behind the Indians, who topped the wild-card standings. Bichette's best days were obviously behind him -- he would soon turn 37 -- but the Red Sox were desperate, and Bichette had played fairly well for the Reds that season.
He continued to play well after joining the Red Sox, but it wasn't nearly enough, as the Sox faded and finished well behind the wild-card-winning Mariners."
When Lavinius and Cooch wrapped up their 2004 MLB East Coast Swing in Baltimore, we ended up at a local sports pub near the inner harbor. As Lavinius and Cooch were downing tequila, B-52s, and butterscotch schnapps shots (in addition to a few draft beers), we ended up in the billiards room, watching a bunch of drunks gambling for table time. As it turns out, one of the lefty pool players was none other than John Curtice, former Red Sox draftee. Is was a pretty interesting conversation from that point forward, as Curtice was intrigued that Lavinius even knew about him -- and moreover, Lavinius knew that, although pronounced "Curtis," the Red Sox southpaw reliever's name was actually spelled "Curtice." Of course, Cooch was impressed by Lavinius' insane trivia recollection. Curtice ended up buying us a round or two of drinks (and offered us more) and he ended the night being chauffeured alongside two nice-looking ladies (that's right, he left the bar in a limo with two chicks). It appeared as though Curtice was living the style of a MLB player, although his career was cut short by injuries.
"I used to throw as hard as Randy Johnson," said Curtice when Cooch asked him what kind of stuff he had. "Usually around 94 m.p.h., but could hit 97-98 at times," Curtice continued. "I had a mean fastball, decent breaking pitch, and a change-up, and I was working on a slider," is what he said, from my recollection. Of course I didn't believe him - here's a guy who never made it to the majors, but had big-league stuff, and I thought he was pulling our chain. However, further research online suggested that Curtice just might be telling the truth.
Some of Curtice's honors included:
- Baseball America best Red Sox Prospects: best fastball,#2 prospect
- Howe SportsData Teen Minor League Team: honorable mention
- 1998 Midwest League All-Star Game selection
- Baseball America: Red Sox Prospects Report: #7 prospect
- Baseball America: 1997 Red Sox Draft Analysis: hardest thrower
1 comment:
Great post!
Curtice was the man! I remember overhearing him say he was a former Red Sox prospect. Then I asked him what his name was. He told me "John Curtice" and it rang a bell. Just to show him that I heard of him, I spelled his name. Then he's like, "he knows how my name is spelled!" Fuckin riot!
I remember him and some other guy playing for $20 a game. From my recollection, he was on the short end of most of the matches- but he didn't seem to care. He was definitely a jolly drunk- as evidenced by the two lovelies he had in each arm that night. Even though he lost at the billiards table, as far as I'm concerned, he won... :)
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