DeRosa will miss '95 football season

New Athletic Communications Director Mark DeRosa always dreamed of being a two-sport star in college. For a year and a half, he lived that dream. But yesterday, the dream crashed and burned and took him down with it, as it was revealed that the shoulder injury he suffered during the baseball team's spring trip to Florida will sideline him for the remainder of the baseball season and the entire 1995 football season. DeRosa, the starting quarterback for the undefeated 1994 football squad, suffered what was first diagnosed as a strained shoulder sliding into third base during a game in Florida. The starting shortstop going into the season, DeRosa took over the designated hitting duties for four games after incurring the injury. Then came routine tests yesterday that revealed a torn rotator cuff, the absolute severest of shoulder injuries. Such injuries usually require more than a year of rehabilitation. "Now I'm all dressed up with no place to go," DeRosa said. "I have no idea what to think right now. This is?I don't know what it is. It's asinine!" Immediately after DeRosa suffered the injury, Seddon and football coach Al Bagnoli hired a so-called "dream team" of doctors to determine how serious it was. Their diagnosis called for him to sit out the baseball season and start preparing for the football season in late July. But DeRosa and his family decided to get a second opinion, and went to Dr. Kreigh Z. Jackson, who has residence at the Hospital of the University Pennsylvania. He said DeRosa's injury was much less serious than originally thought, and there was a 99.9 percent chance that designated hitting would pose no further danger to his health. Unfortunately for all involved, that was not the case. "I felt a bad twinge batting last weekend against Pace," DeRosa said. "That's when I knew something might be wrong, but I never imagined this." "We're all devastated," first baseman Allen "Paperboy" Fischer said. "Mark was a good player and a good friend. I know that sounds like he's dead or something, and I know he's not, but I almost feel as though he is." Bagnoli was in his office preparing to embark on an African Safari vacation and had not yet heard the news yesterday afternoon. He was joking with defensive coordinator Mike Toop about borrowing some of Toop's Hawaiian t-shirts for the trip when a reporter approached him for a comment. The smile on his face quickly disappeared. Bagnoli plopped into a chair, looking more drained than he did when his Quakers last lost a game, in 1992 at Princeton. "Goddamned baseball," he murmured. "I always thought this might happen. It makes you wonder if a job like this is worth it. Why couldn't our baseball players go on strike with the rest of 'em?" Sophomore Steve Teodecki will likely start next season behind center for the football team. Early last summer, DeRosa and Teodecki were neck and neck in the race to replace Jim McGeehan as Penn's starting QB. By opening day, though, DeRosa had pulled well ahead. "We'll have to see," Bagnoli said. "I think Steve can do a fine job. I'm not going to promise any undefeated season now, that's for sure." "I'm confident everything will work out," first-team all-Ivy wide receiver Miles Macik said. "Steve lives right near me, and we'll be working out every single day over the summer. Our goal is nothing less than to go to a bowl game this year."

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