Jon Morosi ‘04 Talks Baseball, Harvard, and Sports Journalism

“I think [it’s] a good thing, that what you study does not necessarily have to be what you do for your career,” said Jon Morosi ‘04, former Crimson men's hockey beat writer and junior varsity baseball player for Harvard. “[My parents] very easily could have said, ‘You know, Jon, we didn’t send you to Harvard to be a baseball writer.’”

Morosi graduated Harvard in 2004 with a degree in environmental science and public policy, but has worked in sports journalism and broadcasting ever since his time at Harvard.

“I wouldn’t trade my experience [as a college journalist] for anything,” he said.

The former Crimson editor was a beat writer for the Tigers with the Detroit Free Press from 2006-2009, before joining FOXSports.com as a national baseball writer and columnist. Now, he works at MLB Network, appearing on numerous programs, including the Emmy-award winning MLB Tonight, while also having the chance to cover for NHL Network at times. He resides in his home state of Michigan with his wife and three daughters.

As part of his work study in his first year on campus, Morosi worked in the athletic media relations department, keeping stat sheets at the hockey games. Then, Mike Volonnino ‘01, senior beat writer for men’s hockey at the time, told Jon he should write for the Crimson and cover hockey the following year. Once Volonnino graduated, Morosi took over the open beat his sophomore year (also doing play-by-play on WHRB broadcasts), following the hockey team throughout the winter until the season ended and he took the field for the baseball team.

The highlight of Morosi’s years covering the Crimson’s time on the ice? In March of 2002, Morosi sat and watched sophomore Tyler Kolarik ‘04 bury the puck in the third overtime of the longest championship game in ECAC history (96:11) to secure the 4-3 triumph over Cornell.

“One of the great parts of it too,” Morosi reflected, “is that when you when you...cover a team that's meaningful to you, and then they do something special, there's a really great amount of gratitude in that, and I think that's totally great.”

Among the many thrills of covering professional baseball, Morosi’s favorite might be the World Baseball Classic.

“I think that anybody that knows me and has talked to me about international baseball realizes that I probably say we should have it every single year,” said Morosi. “I love it that much…I'm already getting very excited about 2021.” Morosi said the noise from the 2017 WBC games in Miami left his ears ringing from the time he left the stadium at night to the time he returned the next day. It’s a phenomenon, like the World Cup, “where the fans are not there to see the show—they believe they are the show,” explained Morosi. “That makes for really special sporting events.”

When asked about baseball’s return to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Morosi expressed his excitement for baseball to grow on the world stage. The Olympics provides opportunities “for the sport to grow around the world, in places where it hasn't necessarily traditionally been strong," and you wonder how many dreams will be inspired by young people watching their national team participate.

Morosi acknowledges the difficulty and sometimes volatility of the journalism industry.

“I basically decided around [sophomore year] that I was going to do this until someone told me that I couldn’t,” he said. “And it hasn’t happened yet...It's a funny business, you never know when you get the tap on the shoulder that says ‘Hey, it's time to do something else.’ There's always that possibility out there, because it’s such a competitive and talent driven industry.” In other words, you have to do your homework, and it surely helps to be so passionate about what you cover.

Morosi sees several parallels to Harvard in his profession.

“Your job is to is to comprehensively inform yourself every day on something that you have a very keen interest, “ said Morosi. “That is at its core, still a very academic and intellectual pursuit, whether it's for television... the internet...a newspaper, a magazine, radio—it's still trying to become an expert...by learning new things every day. And that actually, when you think about Harvard's educational mission, lines up pretty nicely.”

For Morosi, interacting with players also incorporates an academic pursuit, considering Morosi learned better Spanish throughout his professional career in order to connect with players more closely.

In September of 2019, “I was in the Mets clubhouse and Robinson Cano called me over,” said Morosi. “Then he just started speaking to me in Spanish. And he was smiling because we've talked before, and he really enjoyed the fact that I did—I've made this effort to speak Spanish.” Despite the benefit of Morosi’s linguistic skills, his one regret was that he didn’t take more Spanish at Harvard.

It’s important to Morosi to connect with players and he enjoys telling the stories of where players have come from and how they’ve emerged as unique performers in such a competitive, talent-driven industry.

“I think in journalism, yes, objectivity is a big part of our jobs,” Jon iterated on the phone. “But humanity is too, and we can't lose that authenticity of who we are... there's a human element in sports, [and] there's a human element in journalism too.”

Since writing for the Crimson, Morosi has provided that human element, whether it be behind the microphone, behind the keyboard, or in front of the camera. He reflected, “I would say that I just feel very, very lucky that I still somehow get paid to talk to people about something I love.” Considering Jon Morosi has made it this far without anyone telling him to stop—and it’s worked out this well—we don’t see him stopping any time soon. Now it’s playoff baseball season. You’re excited, we’re excited, Jon’s excited, and you’ll see him on MLB Network.