Jack Flaherty

Jack Flaherty (born c. 1931) is a politician and former member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

Flaherty graduated with a Bachelor of Education, a Bachelor of Physical Education, and a Master's of Education from the University of Alberta. He worked as a teacher in Edmonton and Red Deer before becoming a consultant for the government's Department of Education. He later became an administrator, acting as associate superintendent of schools in Edmonton and the superintendent of schools in Fort McMurray.

Flaherty first ran for office in the 2004 Alberta provincial election, when he ran for the Alberta Liberal Party in St. Albert against incumbent Progressive Conservative Mary O'Neill. Flaherty won an upset victory of just over four hundred votes.

Once in office, Flaherty became the Liberal education critic, in which capacity he has argued that provincially mandated achievement tests should no longer be given to grade three students, and that the government should put increased focus on diagnostic testing of children at that age. He has also advocated for a broader range of programs for high school students and better support for vocational programs. In March 2007, he sponsored the School (Restrictions on Fees and Fundraising) Amendment Act (Bill 208), which would prohibit schools from charging fees or conducting fund-raising for the support of curricular activities. The bill was defeated in May 2007.

Jack Flaherty (baseball)

Jack Flaherty (born October 15, 1995) is an American professional baseball pitcher in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. He was drafted by the Cardinals in the first round of the 2014 Major League Baseball Draft.

Early life

Jack attended Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, California. He pitched and played shortstop and third base as a member of the varsity baseball team for all four of his years at Harvard-Westlake. He was a sophomore when two of his high school teammates and fellow pitchers Max Fried and Lucas Giolito were both drafted in the first round of the 2012 MLB Draft. During his senior season, Harvard-Westlake was the consensus #1 team in the nation in the MaxPreps "XCellent 50" for much of the beginning of the season, before dropping out of the rankings altogether.

On April 29, 2014, Flaherty pitched a complete game, 2–1 victory over Alemany to bring a two-year win–loss record to 20–0 (W–L). In his last two seasons, his record was 23–0 overall. He finished the 2014 regular season with an 0.69 ERA and 13–0 record on his way to being named Southern Section Division I player of the year. He pitched 78 innings (IP), struck out 125 (SO) batters while giving up just 32 hits and 12 bases on balls (BB). In the first game of the playoffs – which was also the last game of his high school career – he threw a no-hitter against Riverside North. He was subsequently named the 2014 Gatorade Player of the Year in baseball for the state of California. The Los Angeles Times selected him as their baseball player of the year. In his four years on the mound, his record was 35–3.