Dan Morse

Center fielder and quarterback Dan Morse, the former Randolph High star, recently completed his record-setting baseball and football career at Tufts University. He holds Jumbos’ marks for most career hits, runs and stolen bases, as well as single-season records for hits, runs, and home runs. He also holds Tufts’ football records for career rushing touchdowns and total offense.

A political science major, Division 3 All-American in baseball, and Rudolph J. Fobert Award recipient as the outstanding athlete at Tufts, Morse started going to the South Shore Baseball Club 10 years ago in its first year of existence. “Young kids can get more individual instruction at SSBC than in Little League or Babe Ruth where coaches are usually parents volunteering to help,” Dan said. “They aren’t necessarily knowledgeable baseball people. SSBC has experienced baseball guys like Frank (Niles) and Vinnie (Hillyer).

“There’s a big difference playing for and against all-star type teams like I played for SSBC. You get better playing with and against better competition. The SSBC team I played for in Florida as a senior in high school had (present minor league) pitchers Mike Spinelli (Red Sox) and Pete Fisher (Minnesota). It helped me become a leader, too. When you’re a veteran on a team like that, some of the younger players look up to you, and that also happened to me at Tufts.”

Morse is waiting to find out if he’ll be caught in the Major League Baseball draft or signed as a free agent. If not, he’ll probably play in a summer league like he has the past few years, and get into coaching, possibly at SSBC.

“If it ever came down to baseball or football,” Dan answers a question he’s heard too many times, “I would have picked baseball. I’ll just wait and see what happens (in terms of playing pro baseball). I’d like to play baseball at the next level and eventually get into coaching. Even if I don’t play pro baseball, I’m still going to play baseball. I want to be a baseball coach and I’d really like to get into coaching as an assistant in a college program.”

SSBC was the foundation by which Dan Morse built his still budding baseball career. “SSBC definitely effected my baseball career,” he concluded. “It really helped me a lot as a kid, the education I received and individual instruction. The people at SSBC know how to talk to young players.”