DeRosa looks toward Double-A

The former Penn shortstop spent the 1997 season playing for the Carolina League's Durham Bulls. Mark DeRosa's quest for a Penn degree is turning into a multi-year saga. Not because the former Quakers quarterback and shortstop is struggling in the classroom, but his summer job keeps running too long. And he's got a tough boss -- Ted Turner. Actually, Turner has probably never heard of DeRosa, one of the hundreds of ballplayers in his Atlanta Braves organization. Although DeRosa has just two semesters to go until he completes his Wharton degree, he won't take a class for at least another year, since next week he leaves for the Braves' fall instructional league camp in Orlando, Fla. DeRosa, 22, a sixth-round draft pick in 1996 who left behind college eligibility in both baseball and football to sign with Atlanta, spent the summer of '97 in the Carolina League, a high-A league. The Carlstadt, N.J., native was a member of the Durham Bulls, a team made famous by the Kevin Costner/Susan Sarandon film Bull Durham. DeRosa had played a strong enough shortstop to make the league's All-Star team before he broke a bone in his left hand when he was hit by a pitch. DeRosa was flown to Atlanta the next morning, where he underwent a 20-minute operation. Four weeks later, the cast was off, and, six weeks after the incident, he was back on the field. "My wrist was a little weak, but not as much as I thought," DeRosa said. "I kind of babied it a little, probably more than I should have." At Durham, DeRosa was managed by one-time major leaguer Paul Runge. A former utility infielder with Atlanta in the mid-'80s, Runge was an ideal manager to work with a young shortstop who admits he does not pay enough attention to his defense. "He's a great guy to play for, really determined," DeRosa said. "He helped me a lot. We formed more of a bond than some of the other players may have formed with him." A minor leaguer's season is judged not so much on numbers and awards -- or even wins and losses -- but progress toward the ultimate goal, The Show. DeRosa is happy with his .285 batting average and eight home runs, which would likely have gone into double figures had he not missed a third of the season. DeRosa had expected to start the season in lower-level A-ball at Macon, Ga., but a strong spring training campaign convinced the Braves to give him a chance in the Carolina League. A strong instructional league campaign followed by a solid spring could bump DeRosa all the way to Double-A next year, a scenario he calls "realistic.' "I think they're happy with me from the standpoint that I was able to skip over low A, skip over a level and go to high A," DeRosa said. "So I think they're happy so far, although there's definitely room for improvement." One of the questions surrounding DeRosa when he joined the pro ranks was what position he would play. At 6'1", 185 pounds, he is slightly larger than the typical shortstop and some suggested his future was at second or third base. For the time being, however, DeRosa's future is as a shortstop. "I think I'll be alright there, and they plan on keeping me there until I play my way out of the position," DeRosa said. "If I was forced to move over to second base, and that's what I would have to do to get to the big leagues, that's what I'd do." At the minor-league level, players are put in the awkward position of living, traveling and playing with potential rivals for big league jobs. In just over a year in the Braves' system, DeRosa already knows players from the top to the bottom of the organization, including Jeff Blauser, whose job as Atlanta's starting shortstop the ex-Quaker would like to eventually take. Silence, in such an environment is golden. "It's not talked about," DeRosa said. The next year may be the critical one for DeRosa. If he succeeds in reaching Double-A, DeRosa will cease to be an anonymous cog in the lower reaches. Instead, he would be two steps away from Turner Field. And the owner might even know his name.

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