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Pitching Coach
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Making his return to Sancet Field and the Arizona baseball program is first-year pitching coach Jeff Morris. An Arizona 1980 College World Series champion alum, Morris re-enters the collegiate game with an enormous amount of pitching knowledge and Major League credentials.
A two-year letter winner for Arizona in 1979 and `80, Morris was a key component to Arizona's second national championship in baseball. He left a 19-year career in professional baseball to rejoin the Wildcat baseball program. Ha has served as an area scout for the Baltimore Orioles in the southwest region of the country for the past four years, most recently signing Dustin Yount, the son of Major League Hall of Famer Robin Yount.
A native Tucsonan, he graduated from Catalina High School in 1976. A left-handed starter, he spent one season at Yavapai Junior College in Prescott, Ariz., where he helped the Rough Riders win the 1977 Junior College National Championship. After one season in JUCO ball he transferred to Arizona where he once again played a part in postseason success, pitching Arizona to the 1979 College World Series and the `80 national title.
He was drafted after his junior at UA by the Houston Astros and spent four seasons in the minor leagues, including two with the Tucson Toros. His pitching success and winning ways followed him to professional baseball as he was a member of the Daytona Beach Astros' 1981 Florida State League championship team.
After a shoulder operation and four knee surgeries he retired from his playing career and began his career as a pitching instructor. He returned to Tucson and Arizona in 1985 to complete his degree in exercise and sports sciences. Along with finishing his studies at UA he also served as the volunteer assistant pitching coach for the baseball team and legendary head coach Jerry Kindall. The Arizona winning tradition continued to shine on him as both seasons he worked under Kindall, 1985-86, the Wildcats advanced to the College World Series, winning it all in 1986.
While at Arizona, Morris helped mold future major leaguers Gil Heredia, Joe Magrane and Lance Dixon. He also served as the pitching coach for the MatSu Minors in the Alaska Collegiate League and for Team USA in the International Baseball Tournament in Taipei, Taiwan in 1986.
The San Francisco Giants hired Morris in 1987 to serve as a minor league pitching coach. From 1987-90 he worked in San Francisco's minor league system, tutoring the likes of eventual Giants closer Rod Beck, Mark Dewey and Heredia in his first professional season. He worked one season with Northern Division Champion Everett Giants, two seasons with the Clinton Giants and in the Arizona Instructional League and one season with the San Jose Giants, who won the second half Northern Division championship.
In 1991 he was retained by the New York Mets as their minor league pitching coach. He worked two seasons in the Mets organization, spending 1991 with the Gulf Coast League Mets and 1992 in the New York Penn League with the Pittsfield Mets. Among his pitching prospects during that period was future Major Leaguer Eric Hiljus.
In 1993 he signed on with the Baltimore Orioles organization, a club he would work for right up to his hiring at Arizona. Among the pitchers he coached while with the Orioles were Sidney Ponson and Josh Towers, two of Baltimore's five starters in the 2001 rotation, Orioles' reliever Calvin Maduro and former Oriole and current Kansas City Royal Chris Fussell.
Morris and his wife, Linda, continue to make Tucson their home.
