Take a sizable, athletic youngster, mix in a father who wrote a book about pitching, add hitting lessons from a guy who's coached major leaguers and what do you get?

Michael Curran and a magical baseball season.

Curran, 12, of Butler played for two teams this spring and summer: The Pittsburgh North Stars, an AAU team of 12-year-olds based in Wexford, and Sharon-Hermitage, an all-star team of 13-year-olds competing in a Butler tournament.

By the time the season was over, Curran hit nine home runs and pitched a pair of perfect games.

"The perfect games just sort of happened," Curran said. "I can't remember doing that before."

Curran played on a North Stars team that won 40 of 49 games and five tournament championships while playing in Phoenix, Cincinnati, Toledo, Ohio, Akron, Ohio, Baltimore, Detroit and Charlotte, N.C.

And because this is AAU baseball, games aren't played on Little League-sized fields with short fences, meaning Curran's homers repeatedly traveled 300 feet or more.

"No question, he was our biggest offensive threat this year," said North Stars coach Lalo Berezo. "He bats fourth in our lineup.

"Everything he does is so fundamentally sound. He has a big league swing. Ty Cobb and Pete Rose don't hit the same way. It's not one style fits all. Mike found what works for him," he added.

Curran found it through Frank Porco, a renowned hitting instructor who lives in Bethel Park. Porco has worked with Sean Casey, Ray Durham, Pokey Reese and about 20 other major leaguers.

Curran has been playing baseball since he was 7 years old and has been working with Porco once a week for more than four years.

Curran's father, Michael Curran Sr., 62, is a North Hills High School graduate who played baseball briefly at Oklahoma University.

"I was 50 when Mike came along," he said. "I had been away from baseball for 30 years, so when he took an interest in the game, I had to get back into it.

"I began doing research on pitching and acquired a lot of knowledge over the years," he added.

The elder Curran acquired so much knowledge, in fact, that he wrote a 122-page book titled "The Pitching Master" and sells it over the Internet.

He has sold copies all over the United States, as well as in France, Japan and Puerto Rico.

"My Dad's been coaching me since I started," The younger Curran said. "He taught me how to pitch."

And when he does pitch, he throws strikes.

"Mike wants the ball to hit the bat; that's what makes him so good," Berezo said. "He's got the mentality of a 15- or 16-year-old. He's not a thrower like other 12-year-olds, he's a pitcher."

Curran hit five homers, drove in 16 runs and pitched the championship-game victory at the Cal Ripken 2004 Babe Ruth 12-year-old Tournament in Baltimore over the July 4 weekend.

At 5-feet-8, 173 pounds, Curran is not a small 12-year-old. But he doesn't fire the ball past people, either.

"I just try to throw strikes and let guys hit it," he said. "That's why we have fielders."

When the North Stars' season ended, a Sharon-Hermitage 13-year-old all-star team short of players picked Curran up for a tournament. He pitched a perfect game against Cranberry Township.

"He throws average speed for his age," Curran's father said. "It's just discipline. He practices pitching twice a week during the winter, hitting once a week. He's steadily gotten better every year he's played.

"The discipline he's learned in baseball spills over to the classroom. He is an A-student," he added.

An incoming eighth-grader at Butler, Curran plans to play fall baseball in Youngstown, Ohio.

Two years from now, he hopes to make the Butler High School team.

And in the meantime?

"I know I can get better," he said. "I'll just keep working at it."