Penn’s Mark DeRosa takes on a new challenge: Managing for the first time with Team USA in the WBC

Mark DeRosa has worn many hats in his athletic life: Penn football and baseball player, Ivy League student, 16-year Major League Baseball veteran, and for the past decade, studio analyst with MLB Network.

This month, he adds a new one: manager.

DeRosa, 48, will make his managerial debut for the reigning champion Team USA when World Baseball Classic pool play kicks off on Saturday. The former Quaker represented the U.S. as a player at the tournament in 2009, and now he’ll take charge of a roster with names including Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, and the Phillies’ Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto. The coaching staff is equally star-studded, with Ken Griffey Jr. serving as hitting coach and Andy Pettitte as pitching coach.

DeRosa will lead them all. And even if he’s never managed a professional game before, leadership is a language he knows very well, going back to his days on Locust Walk.

“I’ve always been a guy, whether that’s through being the quarterback in the huddle, who is not afraid to speak my mind in certain situations,” DeRosa said. “I’ve always been able to create good chemistry in the clubhouse, dugout, locker room. I truly don’t have a jealous bone in my body. I am blessed beyond belief with what I’ve been able to do and accomplish, and I want the guys next to me to do exactly that.”

He knows a thing or two about winning championships, too. As Penn’s starting quarterback in the fall and starting shortstop in the spring, DeRosa led both teams to Ivy League championship titles. In his rookie year on the football team in 1994, he went undefeated at quarterback, starting all seven games.

It was a DeRosa home run against Yale that secured Penn’s 1995 Ivy League title and a bid to the NCAA Midwest II Regional. Former Penn baseball coach Bob Seddon remembers the homer almost three decades later.

“I was coaching third, and I can still see Mark coming around third base after he hit that home run late in the game. That was his biggest hit in my eyes,” Seddon said.

It’s more common to find an Ivy League graduate in a baseball front office or ownership group than on a diamond, but DeRosa views his Wharton undergraduate degree as a unique asset that’s helped him throughout his career.

“I never doubted, even from the Ivy League, that I could make it. I just didn’t view it like that,” DeRosa said. “I viewed it as I’m gonna keep putting myself in uncomfortable positions. Being in the classroom at Penn was uncomfortable because I knew I wasn’t at the top of the food chain.

“So I always felt like, if I can get through that, if I can iron out a career with baseball and football and doing all these things, I can make all this work, then no one’s gonna tell me whether or not I can make it.”

DeRosa spent his MLB career all over the diamond. He started at every position except center field, pitcher, or catcher. Sometimes he didn’t know what position he was playing that day until he got to the ballpark. He believes his career as a utility player has prepared him to step into a managerial role.

“I spent quite a bit of time on the bench most of my career just analyzing and watching the way the game takes shape, and how different managers navigate their different situations,” DeRosa said. “I played for eight different organizations. I played every league: West Coast, East Coast, National League, American League, every division, so I feel like I have a well-rounded view on how certain organizations like to do certain things.

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“… I just try and take all that into consideration. And just try and create the best environment for these guys to come in, and have fun for three and a half weeks, and try and win this.”

He still texts with his former housemates — seven former football players with whom he once lived right across the street from what’s still a Penn campus late-night staple, Allegro Pizza and Grill.

He’s also kept in touch with former Penn football coach Al Bagnoli, now the head coach at Columbia, and has spoken to his players on occasion. And last year, when the Penn baseball team won a share of the Ivy League regular season title, DeRosa gave his old team a shoutout on MLB Network. “I’m watching, I’m watching,” he said on air.

DeRosa has interviewed with the Miami Marlins and the New York Mets for their managerial openings. A strong showing in the WBC could help his chances of becoming a major league manager.

Some think this is a long time coming. DeRosa’s final season in the majors was with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2013. Seddon happened to visit their spring training facility in Dunedin, Fla., that year. He had retired from his 37-year coaching career at Penn in 2005, and he had a few connections in the Jays organization.

“I went over there, got out on the field,” Seddon said. “The manager [John] Gibbons and a couple of the players mentioned how they love Mark DeRosa — he’s a real player guy. He’s a people person, and he’s a guy that could someday be a coach or a manager in professional baseball, if he wanted that, because he fits the mold.

“He just has it. I don’t know how to explain it, but he’s just that kind of guy.”

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