As a high school senior in 2000 pitching for Cincinnati's St. Xavier High School, Randy Newsom had none other than Harvard courting him for his athletic prowess. While the Crimson offered the allure of Div. I athletics and the prestige of an Ivy League education, Newsom was more intrigued by an earlier visit to Tufts.
"In comparison, [Tufts] felt a lot more comfortable," Newsom said. "The people there seemed very genuine. In the end, Tufts was the best combination of athletics and academics and people that I found."
Newsom ultimately decided to pursue his big league aspirations with the Div. III Jumbos. As it turned out, he had picked the path to success.
After a stellar four-year career at Tufts, in which he struck out 165 batters and earned a First-Team All-NESCAC selection his senior year, Newsom is making his mark in professional baseball. The right-handed reliever currently stars for the Akron Aeros, the AA affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, where his dazzling first-half performance earned him a trip to the Eastern League All-Star Game on July 11.
A former Red Sox prospect, Newsom was sent to Cleveland in the January 2006 trade that brought Coco Crisp to Boston, and in the Indians' system, he's hardly the same pitcher he was at Tufts. A jack-of-all-trades with the Jumbos, he made 28 starts and 20 relief appearances in his college career. For Akron, Newsom works exclusively out of the bullpen, serving as both the team's closer and its late-inning reliever. Additionally, having dropped his arm-slot well below three-quarters, Newsom is now a groundball specialist, rather than the strikeout machine who led the NESCAC his senior year with the Jumbos.
Still, there's no denying Newsom's Tufts roots. The Ohio native, majored in economics, played football, served three terms as a TCU senator, volunteered for the Special Olympics and worked as a resident assistant during his time on the Hill.
Newson continued his active citizenship after graduation in 2004, starting a business, working as a substitute teacher and deferring his acceptance to law school, all while pursuing his baseball career. Newson said his ambitions are products of his Tufts education, which he credits for making him a well-rounded individual.
"Going to Tufts allowed me to be a much more balanced person than if I went somewhere else and focused more on baseball," Newsom said. "Now that I'm a pro, I focus on baseball plenty. But at Tufts especially, I was trying to get as many experiences in at once as I could to genuinely get to see things that I wouldn't have normally seen and push myself out of my comfort zone."
It is nonetheless rare to find someone who balanced academics and athletics as successfully as Newsom did.
"There's not that many guys from Tufts who have done it," Newsom said. "When there's other [Div. III] guys on the field, especially as you get up in the levels, it's nice to see them. It's fun to swap stories with [Div. III] guys. Their teammates are now doctors and lawyers, and you're still chasing the dream and living out of hotels."
Many late-inning relievers rely on competitiveness to succeed. Newson said he developed the trait playing high school football before crowds of 30,000 fans in Ohio and from his father, a homicide detective.
But there is also no denying the role Div. III baseball played in cultivating Newsom's fortitude.
"When our guys go on the field, they want to win as much as LSU or Florida or any other baseball team in the country that goes on the field and wants to win," Tufts coach John Casey said. "I don't see how there's a big difference in how much our guys care. They put the time in and they work hard."
Even if his baseball career never materializes, Newsom's life ambitions are bigger than baseball.
"I really want to get to the point where I can help the world - make it a better place," Newsom said. "A lot of people have told me in my life, 'Leave the world better than when you found it.' We have an obligation to help the world in a lot of ways."
Added Casey, "My theory is he's going to wind up being a senator or president."
