Encounter with Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Forever Inspires Alumnus and Employee

When Mr. Lally, a native of Floral Park, NY, enrolled at Archbishop Molloy High School, he was hesitant to try out for any sport because he possessed a low opinion of his athletic skills. However, his passion for basketball won and he made the team in his first year.

He did not try out for baseball, but played on a Little League team during his high school years. Edward Ford, Jr., son of New York Yankees great Whitey Ford, coached the team, and Mr. Lally was teammates with Mr. Ford’s son.

Mr. Lally pitched the third game of the season and won handily. Unbeknownst to him, the elder Mr. Ford was in the stands.

“After the game, Whitey walked up to me and introduced himself. I was in such shock I could barely process what he said,” he recalled.

What Mr. Ford was saying, essentially, was that Mr. Lally had a gift for baseball.

“He wanted to know where else I played and I told him I never put on a uniform outside of Floral Park Little League,” Mr. Lally said. “Then he asked me where I went to school and why I’m not playing baseball.”

The conversation ended, and a dumbfounded Mr. Lally filed it away as a signature moment, but little else.

About a week later, he attended Archbishop Molloy’s annual basketball camp, presided over by legendary Coach Jack Curran, who also coached baseball for the school. “He called me over and said, ‘You’re James Lally.’ I was so excited Coach Curran knew my name. That was the greatest day ever.”

He added, “Coach told me he received a phone call from someone informing him you would be trying out for baseball in the fall.”

Mr. Lally was incredulous, having no inkling who made that call. He said, ‘Whitey Ford called me and said you were playing the wrong sport.’”

Mr. Lally made the team. That precipitous phone call set off a chain of events that influenced the remainder of his academic and professional life.

“Whitey could see how shy and lacking in confidence I was, and he took that step to call Coach Curran,” Mr. Lally said. “He had no reason to do that other than that he was a good person. I called him during tryouts and thanked him.”

The pair stayed in touch for the remainder of Mr. Ford’s life and he became a mentor and guiding force for Mr. Lally. More importantly, he has spent his life trying to emulate Mr. Ford’s kindness in his career as a coach and an administrator. Mr. Ford died in 2020.

“Most 15-year-olds are not confident, and you luck out if you have a mentor or a rabbi who is willing to give you that little push. I had a Yankee Hall of Famer of all people,” Mr. Lally said, smiling, the magnitude of the statement not lost on him.

After a successful baseball career at Archbishop Molloy, Mr. Lally attended St. John’s, where his mother worked. All his siblings attended St. John’s, and while there were offers on the table from other schools, Mr. Ford advised him to go there and try out for the baseball team.

While Mr. Lally enjoyed a solid career at St. John’s, he knew major league scouts would not come calling. He started paying close attention to his coaches and watched how they engaged with their young charges. “I asked questions like why they hit and run in a given situation, and why they called a certain pitch. I really started to enjoy it.”

Mr. Lally decided to go to graduate school so he could teach high school social studies, and his original goal was to coach basketball and baseball under Coach Curran at Molloy. While studying for his master’s degree, he got a job as a teacher’s assistant at Archbishop Molloy. His boss, Ken Auer, a former infielder in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, invited him to play in a slow pitch softball game, and again providence intervened.

Mr. Lally found himself playing next to the head baseball coach at Hofstra University. They struck up a conversation and the man took a liking to him.

“He needed a pitching coach and wanted to bring that winning mentality we had at St. John’s to his team,” Mr. Lally said. It was another serendipitous moment for him, and he still feels an immense sense of gratitude.

At Hofstra, Mr. Lally realized that for him, sports was a means to an end, and not an end unto itself. “I didn’t want to completely leave sports behind. I wanted to use sports to help kids become more confident. I’m constantly replaying the Whitey story in my mind. It became more about helping people, the way Whitey and Coach Curran helped me.”

He transitioned to administration at Hofstra and then became Director of Athletics and Recreation at St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn, NY. In 2019, he returned to St. John’s as Director of Employee Relations for The Lesley H. and William L. Collins College of Professional Studies. In 2023, he became Senior Director, Employee Relations, for University Career Services.

While he no longer works directly with students, Mr. Lally cultivates relationships with corporations, encouraging them to recruit at St. John’s. All the while, he has kept his hand in coaching, most notably with the Irish Wolfhounds Baseball Club, which represents the Irish American Baseball Society. The society is a US-based nonprofit organization that celebrates the contributions of Irish Americans to amateur and professional baseball and supports youth baseball programs in Ireland and America.

Mr. Lally has worked diligently to help grow the sport in Ireland; it has slowly gained traction there. The hope is for Ireland to someday reach the World Baseball Classic.

The team plays anywhere from five to seven games a year. When looking for partners for locations, the leadership of the New York Boulders stepped up as a strong ally. St. John’s University Board of Trustees Chair William J. Janetschek ’84CBA, ’17HON, is the owner of the New York Boulders, and their Clover Stadium has been the site of many Wolfhounds home games the past three summers.

“When they found out we were trying to grow baseball in the Irish community, they generously allowed us to play there. Their top-notch facilities have been instrumental in providing us a professional setting to legitimize our efforts,” Mr. Lally explained.

In July, the Society posthumously inducted Mr. Ford into their Hall of Fame, and Mr. Lally was on hand, along with members of Mr. Ford’s family, to honor the man who changed the course of his life.

“It all stems from Whitey. Without him I probably would’ve played Division II basketball and never coached. Coaching led me to this career in higher education administration, and this is where I found my purpose. I hope I have a positive impact. When I connect all those things, this is what I was meant to do. I want to pay it forward.”