Steve Curry

Steve Curry, a 6-foot-6, 217-pound right-handed pitcher, played professional baseball for 12 years. He appeared just briefly in the majors, making three starts for the Boston Red Sox in mid-July 1988. He threw 11 innings, allowing 10 earned runs, and had just one decision in the big leagues, a loss in his debut game. 

Stephen Thomas Curry was born in Winter Park, Florida, on September 13, 1965. His parents were Patti and Alan MacKay of Plantation, Florida. Steve credited Alan MacKay, his stepfather, with his achievements in baseball. He had started Steve “in the very youngest league and served as his coach through the years.”1 Steve graduated from Fort Lauderdale Plantation High School.

Curry was selected in the seventh round of the June 1984 free agent draft out of Manatee Junior College in Bradenton, Florida.2 He had played first base at Manatee as well but was drafted as a pitcher.3 It had been quite a week for the 18-year-old. On June 7, pitching in a summer program in Fort Lauderdale, he had struck out 17 batters in a seven-inning shutout. The next day he hit a grand slam.4 And on June 9 he was drafted. He discussed his signing at length with a reporter for the Fort Lauderdale News.5

The signing scout for the Red Sox was George Digby. Scout Joe Branzell of the Texas Rangers had seen Curry three times and filed a report in late April saying that Curry had been better each time but still noted a “lack of maturity and phys. development.”6 But the Red Sox were prepared to be patient, and by age 22, Curry had made the major leagues.

His first assignment, in summer 1984, was to the Elmira Pioneers in the short-season Low-A New York-Penn League. Curry started 14 games and produced a record of 6-4 with three complete games and an even 4.00 earned run average. His best game was a one-hitter against Oneonta on August 13. He discussed his first year at some length with the Fort Lauderdale News, saying, “I’m having a great time. I’m getting to play a lot, which is helping me adjust to pro ball.”7

In 1985, Curry pitched in the Single-A Florida State League for the Winter Haven Red Sox. He almost doubled his work, throwing 161 innings. He started 25 games and appeared in two others, with a 9-10 record and a 3.69 ERA. In midyear, presumably because of his height, Boston sportswriter Peter Gammons called him a “Jim Lonborg clone.”8

Curry was promoted to Double-A New Britain in the Eastern League in 1986. Manager Tony Torchia said he had “an above average arm. He’s lanky and he’s loose and really rides the ball inside on right-handed hitters. And he’s got a good curveball to go along with it.”9 At midseason, Curry was named to the league all-star team. Despite working at the higher level, he brought his ERA down once again that year, to 2.79. He was 11-9 in 24 starts. The Red Sox added him to their 40-man roster that November.

Continuing his steady progress, in 1987 Curry worked for the Pawtucket Red Sox, Boston’s Triple-A team in the International League. He was 11-12 (3.81), with a career-high 112 strikeouts over 184 1/3 innings pitched. The standout game of the year was his July 6 no-hitter against the Richmond Braves, an 11-0 road win. Curry walked three. It was the league’s first no-hitter in 10 years.10 Earlier, in late May, the Red Sox had needed pitching. The Boston Herald’s Joe Giuliotti wrote that “it wouldn’t be surprising to see either right-hander John Leister or Steve Curry up from Pawtucket and in the starting rotation.”11 The team had hopes for Curry; general manager Lou Gorman acknowledged in August that with the exception of Curry, “we don’t have any pitching depth in the minors.”12

As spring training got underway in 1988, Curry talked about how nervous he had been the year before, giving up eight runs in his first spring game. He had tried too hard, he said, but felt more self-confidence.13 It looked like a choice between Curry and Mike Smithson as the fifth Sox starter in 1988. However, Curry was troubled with shoulder stiffness and had an unfortunate camp (0-2, 5.40). Therefore, Smithson got the nod. But GM Gorman said that Curry “just needs a little more work. He’ll pitch in the big leagues before the season is over.”14

Curry spent most of 1988 with Pawtucket. He started off the season 4-0 (1.38) before April was over. A line drive broke pitcher Jeff Sellers’ hand and the Red Sox planned to bring up either Curry or Steve Ellsworth. The latter got the call; he had been up earlier in the season. When Bruce Hurst came down with a virus in July, Curry was called up. He had a 2.62 ERA with the PawSox. As the Boston Herald noted, for the past two or three years he “had to tote around the weighty title of ‘top pitching prospect in the organization.’”15

Curry’s debut was John McNamara’s last game as Boston’s manager. He had shepherded the team to the seventh game of the 1986 World Series, but on July 10, 1988 the Red Sox came into the game at Comiskey Park with a record of 43-41 and in fourth place in the seven-team AL East, nine games behind the first-place Detroit Tigers. They had split a doubleheader the day before. The July 10 game was the last of a 12-game road trip on which the Red Sox went 4-8.

Curry started and walked the first batter he faced, then got two outs and walked another. Greg Walker doubled to left-center, both runners scored, and the White Sox took a 2-0 lead. A single and a stolen base followed, but Chicago scored no more until the fourth. A leadoff single, sacrifice bunt, a walk, and a wild pitch set the table for third baseman Steve Lyons to hit a sacrifice fly and make it 3-0, White Sox. With runners on first and third in the fifth, Curry was relieved by Mike Smithson, who worked his way out of the inning.   

Boston scored just one run, in the top of the eighth. Curry had allowed only four hits, but he had walked seven. He bore the defeat. “I wasn’t nervous,” he said after the game. “Actually, I felt pretty good out there after the second inning … I throw curves, a slider and a changeup. If you’re ahead, you can use all your pitches. If not, you have to come back with your fastball, and they’re sitting right on the fastball. The name of the game is pitching ahead, and I didn’t.”16

McNamara disagreed with Curry’s characterization of not having been nervous: “He was, and he was rushing himself. He threw the ball decently, but it was the walks that hurt.”17 The Boston Herald said Curry “wasn’t hit hard. However, like most prospects, who aren’t quite ready for prime-time playing, he needed a radar screen to locate home plate.”

Baseball then paused for the All-Star break. When the Red Sox returned to action on July 15, they had a new manager, Joe Morgan. The club promptly started winning: every one of its first 12 games under the new skipper, and 18 of their first 19. “Morgan Magic” was born. Curry got another start in the fifth of those games, a Monday night game at Fenway Park. against the Minnesota Twins on July 18. Somewhat amusingly, he turned up at the ballpark an hour late, explaining, “I got lost coming up from Rhode Island.”18

Curry gave up a first-inning run and then another in the top of the fifth. The second one gave the Twins a 2-1 lead. He had walked three batters and given up seven hits; Minnesota had runners on first and second with one out when Morgan called on Dennis Lamp to relieve. Lamp got out of the inning. Marty Barrett’s two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth gave Boston the lead. The final score was 6-5, Red Sox, leaving Curry with a no-decision.

Morgan liked Curry and so gave him a third start, on July 23. The White Sox were in Boston for a Saturday afternoon game, which turned out to be #10 in the winning streak. The Red Sox took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second. However, Curry ran into trouble in the third. After the leadoff batter flied out, it was walk, balk, double, single, single, wild pitch, intentional walk – and then a bases-loaded walk. Three runs had scored and Morgan waved in Smithson to take over. Two inherited runners scored, for a total of five runs charged to Curry. The Red Sox offense took him off the hook, driving in 10 more runs for an 11-5 win. The decision went to Smithson.

Before the day was over, Hurst was activated off the 15-day disabled list and Curry was optioned back to Pawtucket. The Boston Globe wrote, “Curry had three shots as a starter and showed he wasn’t ready.”19 He finished the season with Pawtucket, showing year-end stats of 11-9 (3.08). His work included a complete-game shutout. On a related note, in three of his losses the PawSox had failed to score even once. On September 1, when rosters expanded, he was brought back to Boston but was not utilized.

Curry trained with Boston in the 1989 preseason but on March 24 was optioned to Pawtucket. The team’s expectations were apparently not high for most of the staff at Triple A. A mid-April article in the Globe said that Eric Hetzel was “the one genuine prospect on a staff of pitchers seemingly consigned to living on the cusp between the major and minor leagues.”20 Curry had a rough start, losing each of his first five decisions. In mid-May, he was put on the disabled list “because of an injury described as a tired shoulder.”21

He returned to action and pitched in an exhibition game against the Red Sox on June 1 but was hammered for five runs in three innings. He was returned to the disabled list a second time and had season-ending arthroscopic surgery at the end of June to remove scar tissue in his shoulder. In September, the Red Sox still had hopes for him but were not sufficiently worried about losing him in December’s Rule 5 draft. Thus, they removed Curry from the roster and outrighted him to Pawtucket.

He did pitch with Boston in spring training 1990 at Winter Haven but was optioned to Pawtucket at the beginning of April. He pitched in only five games (0-1, with an ERA of 11.00). He also started three games with the rookie-level Gulf Coast League Red Sox (1-2). At the end of the season, he became a free agent.

After not appearing in 1991, Curry resurfaced in the Kansas City Royals system in 1992, pitching for the Memphis Chicks (Southern League, Double A). He got in a full season, starting 27 games His record was 8-12 (3.95). In 1993, the Royals had him work at Triple A, for the American Association Omaha Royals. He started 21 games but was tried as a reliever in 12 others. His record for the year was 6-7 (4.88).

The Texas Rangers organization signed him for 1994, placing him with the Oklahoma 89ers, their Triple-A affiliate in the American Association. He relieved in 25 games, starting three, and pitching only 59 innings. He was 2-2 with a disappointing 7.17 earned run average. It was his last season in what used to be called “Organized Baseball.”

He had reported to spring training with the Kansas City Royals in 1995 but given the player strike in progress had refused to play in replacement exhibition games.22 “I drove 22 hours to get there, and came to the clubhouse to pick up my uniform,” he said. “That’s when they called me in and told me they were cutting seven of us to make room for the seven replacement players who they guaranteed jobs to.”23 Assigned to Omaha, he took another route.

Curry pitched in independent ball in 1995, for the St. Paul Saints in the Northern League. He started 14 games, producing an 8-5 (4.24) record.24 In 1996, he traveled to Taiwan and pitched in 10 games (all but one a start) for the Mercuries Tigers of the Chinese Professional Baseball League. He was 1-2 (3.44).

Steve Curry and his wife Gretchen have four children: Justin, Aaron, Lauren, and Braden. He works as a pipefitter with Local 50 and lives in Whitehouse, Ohio. He coached travel baseball teams in the Toledo area from 2002 to 2011, then coached the Anthony Wayne Junior Generals team from 2013-2020, also coaching the Finesse National Softball Team in 2019 and 2010, and then working as an assistant coach with Anthony Wayne High School in 2021. In 2024 and 2025, he coached with NWOElite Baseball, an “invitation-only baseball team composed of some of the best high school players in northwest Ohio.”25

Son Braden Curry was with NWOElite; the right-handed pitcher had a very successful 2025 season with the University of Toledo.26 In her senior year, 2025, daughter Lauren completed four years of pitching softball for Northwestern University.27

Last revised: January 18, 2026

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Bill Lamb and fact-checked by Tony Oliver.

Photo credit: Steve Curry, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and sabr.org. Thanks to Rod Nelson.

Notes

1 Mary McMurria and Bubbles Greer, “Trophy Won by John Poling,” Sarasota (Florida) Herald-Tribune, June 23, 1984: 2DM. He had a brother Greg, in the U.S. Army at the time and hoping for a career in baseball.

2 As of July 2021, there were 30 Manatees who had made the major leagues. See https://www.scfmanatees.com/sports/bsb/scfbaseballplayersinmajors. Accessed July 26, 2021. Curry received a signing bonus of $30,000. See Don Zern, “Player well armed for his life with the Red Sox,” Fort Lauderdale (Florida) News, August 16, 1984: 99.

3 The freshman pitcher had been 9-4 for the Lancers. The Red Sox took a former Lancer in the sixth round, shortstop Jody Reed, who had just completed playing two years at Florida State.

4 McMurria and Greer, “Trophy Won,” above.

5 Don Zern, “Pro-bound,” Fort Lauderdale News, June 17, 1984: 45, 47.

6 Joe Branzell scouting report of April 20, 1984, report #04578 in the Diamond Mines files at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Digby is cited in the 1989 Boston Red Sox Media Guide.

7 Zern, “Player well armed,” above.

8 Peter Gammons, “Clemens to throw batting practice,” Boston Globe, July 22, 1985: 86.

9 Michael Arace, “Britsox Feature Blend of Power and Potential,” Hartford Courant, April 13, 1986: E14.

10 Associated Press, “PawSox’ Curry has no-hitter,” Boston Globe, July 7, 1987: 65.

11 Joe Giuliotti, “Sox in the market for a new starter,” Boston Herald, May 26, 1987: 10.

12 Moss Klein, “Red Sox’s Future Has Signs of Hope,” The Sporting News, August 3, 1987: 16.

13 Stephen Harris, “Rookie hopes to Curry favor,” Boston Herald, March 2, 1988: 81.

14 Tim Horgan, “Little left for Anderson to prove,” Boston Herald, March 22, 1988: 85.

15 Stephen Harris, “Curry gets big-league debut,” Boston Herald, July 9, 1988: 66.

16 Larry Whiteside, “Red Sox’ skid continues, 4-1,” Boston Globe, July 11, 1988: 41.

17 Joe Giuliotti, “Sox come up flat to end a bad trip,” Boston Herald, July 11, 1988: 96, 94.

18 Garry Brown, “Benched Owen wants new deal,” Springfield (Massachusetts) Union-News, July 18, 1988: 29.

19 Larry Whiteside, “Barrett’s disagreement with umpire a tall tale,” Boston Globe, July 24, 1988: 51.

20 Steve Fainaru, “They’re holding one ace,” Boston Globe, April 16, 1989: 54.

21 Steve Fainaru, “Is the system still working?” Boston Globe, May 14, 1989: 50.

22 Chris Sheridan, Associated Press, “Players Arrive, Depart,” Albuquerque (New Mexico) Journal, April 12, 1995: 29.

23 Associated Press, “Revolving door spins faster at free agent camp,” Lafayette (Louisiana) Advertiser April 12, 1995: C-5.

24 In 1985, there had been another Steve Curry, an infielder who played for the Richmond Braves (and sometimes played against Pawtucket).

25 See the NWOElite Baseball site at: https://nwoelitebaseball.com/club-info/#Steve-Curry.

26 https://www.scfmanatees.com/sports/bsb/scfbaseballplayersinmajors

27 https://nusports.com/sports/softball/roster/currylauren/12017