Lupica: Mets' Baxter up on Curran events

Lupica: Mets' Baxter up on Curran events

Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News

Mike Baxter enjoys a moment before a game at Citi Field. The Queens native played for Jack Curran (below) at Archbishop Molloy high school and still seeks his former coach's counsel.

Mike Baxter, one more surprise in this surprise season for the New York Mets, comes to it all from Whitestone in Queens.

He comes from there, and from the buses and trains he used to take to school, and from the ones he took to Mets games, when he was a high school kid telling himself he was riding the same subway train his guy, John Olerud, used to take to old Shea Stadium.

Baxter comes from the Padres organization, where he worked his way up through the minors, waiting for his chance, not knowing his big chance wouldnt come until baseball brought him back to New York, until outfielders started to get hurt with the Mets this season.

Then the kid from out of the stands at Shea was right in the middle of the action at Citi Field, a pinch-hitter at first and now a part-time leadoff man who is batting a very snappy .339.

And Mike Baxter, the Whitestone kid, the Queens kid, also comes to this moment from Archbishop Molloy, from batting third in the order for Jack Curran, one of the great names in the history of high school sports in the city of New York.

Seth Wenig/AP

Mike Baxter (r.), let go by San Diego, now sets the table for David Wright.

Curran is best known for 54 years of coaching basketball at Molloy. But you better believe the old minor league pitcher out of All Hallows in the Bronx, the son of a New York City policeman, has coached baseball just as long at Molloy, been a Coach of the Year in baseball 25 times even more than he has been in basketball.

Curran coached Kenny Anderson in basketball and Brian Winters and Kevin Joyce, famous names out of the citys basketball past. But now Coach Curran of Molloy sends Baxter to left field at Citi Field, now there are the days and nights when Jack Curran watches a kid from Molloy batting leadoff for the New York Mets.

Hes still coaching me, Baxter said on Wednesday afternoon before the Mets lost, 10-6, to the Phillies at night.

When asked exactly how Curran is doing that, Baxter laughed and said, Hes still telling me not to take a straight ball for strike one.

Curran is still telling hitters that at Molloy. He was coaching Wednesday at Fordham in the Catholic High School playoffs, a 7-5 loss to St. Raymonds. But it is double elimination, Curran said Wednesday night, so this years Molloy team was still alive in the playoffs. The 54th season still going.

Oh, I hate to see them take one right down the middle, Jack Curran said. It might be the best pitch theyll see on that at-bat. It might be the best pitch theyll see all day long. So, yes, I was telling Mike the same thing now that I did when he was playing shortstop for me at Molloy.

There have been so many ballplayers for Curran at Molloy. But Baxter is the first position player to make the big leagues out of all of them. There have been high draft choices, and others who made it as far as Triple-A. Baxter, the shortstop turned outfielder, the guy Sandy Alderson grabbed off waivers last summer because he remembered him from when he was running the Padres, is Jack Currans first to make the show.

It is very meaningful for me, it is very meaningful for Molloy, Curran said. The thing I remember about (Baxter) is how hard he worked, how much he wanted this. Hed finish practice with us and then hed still be out there on the field with his father, his father hitting him ground balls.

Howard Simmons/New York Daily News

Mike Baxter and Jack Curran hold the CHSAA championship trophy at Shea Stadium.

Baxter wanted to be a shortstop. St. Johns, Jack Currans old school, recruited him, but wanted to make him into an outfielder, Curran said. So Baxter went to Columbia instead, finally ended up at Vanderbilt, where he played first and third. The Padres drafted him. Now, a long time after Molloy, he has made it all the way back home.

It is not the biggest sampling, of course, barely over 60 at-bats so far. But he still was hitting .339. Ten RBI in the at-bats that hes gotten.

And, Jack Curran said, 11 doubles already, if Im not mistaken. Hes hit the ball hard and made the most of his opportunity. Hes done the thing you have to do when you get a chance like this: Showed them he belongs.

Curran added this: Keep an eye on this young man. I believe the more he learns the pitchers, the better hes going to hit. And the work ethic that I remember is still there. He called me the other day and I said, Where are you? He said, Im on the Long Island Expressway, on my way to the ballpark. I looked at the clock. It was 12:30. For a 7 oclock game.

Baxter was drafted out of Vanderbilt in the fourth round, 2005 draft. Ended up with the Mets last August. Now there are the nights when he is at the top of the batting order. The Molloy man being one more unlikely hero for the Mets in this unlikely season they are having.

They have come off the bench for the Mets, out of the minor leagues. Bench guys asked to be front-line guys, and right now. Minor leaguers asked to produce like major leaguers. Baxter is just the one who comes from Queens to Citi Field, comes from Molloy, from the buses and trains he used to take to get to Shea.

And the great Jack Curran, who thought he was going to pitch his way to Ebbets Field once, finally gets one of his position players to the big leagues. So many good stories around the Mets this season, from just about everywhere.

Baxters the one from here.