In 1985, at the age of thirteen, Curt and his three sisters moved to New York City, where his mom and dad had been living since 1983. The family was living in the upper west side of Manhattan, in Washington Heights, which was mainly populated by Dominican immigrants. Curt’s first few days in New York were very difficult. He had no friends and didn’t know where the baseball fields were. Within a couple of days, however, his dad took him to the field on 170th street and Amsterdam Ave., and that’s all it took for Curt to get back into the baseball arena.

Curt began to play with his new friends almost everyday, and noticed he could hit the ball out of the park on a regular basis. His teammates also saw his natural power and invited Curt to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, Van Courtland Park in the Bronx and Manhattan’s Central Park to play every weekend. This became Curt’s new routine, until he entered high school.

Curt led George Washington High School to three straight Manhattan Division championships (1988-1990) and to the Division finals in 1991. In his junior year, Curt belted a home run measured at over 400 feet in a game played in Central Park vs. Park West High School. As a senior vs. Brandeis High School, he walloped two home runs, each traveling over 430 feet. Curt’s final high school numbers were exceptional: batting average of .630, slugging percentage of 1.455, and a home run every 5.7 at bats. He received All-City honors in 1989, ‘90 and ‘91 and was named New York City Public Schools “High School Player of the Year”

Finally, in June 1991, he received the news and his family cheered. Curt was selected by the Cleveland Indians in the first round (13th overall) of the Major League Baseball amateur draft; the same draft that produced Cliff Floyd, Shawn Green, and Pokey Reese. Former Indians scouting director Mickey White, one of the decision-makers who chose to draft Curt, saw in Curt a player who loved baseball. Curt was signed by scout Joe Delucca, and then sent to Burlington to begin his minor league professional career in the summer of 1991.