DeRosa signs with Atlanta

Penn shortstop sent to short-season A ballPenn shortstop sent to short-season A ballin Eugene of the Northwest League Mark DeRosa has been a huge figure in Penn sports for the past several years. As quarterback of the football team in the fall and as the baseball squad's shortstop in the spring, no athlete has received so much attention. But if he has his way, the spotlight has only begun to shine upon him. Last week, DeRosa agreed to a contract with the Atlanta Braves, after that team made him a seventh-round pick in the June 4 amateur baseball draft. Signing the contract, which includes a signing bonus of around $90,000, marks the beginning of the long road to the major leagues. It had been an open question whether DeRosa would leave Penn, but the Braves offered just the opportunity that the Carlstadt, N.J., native was looking for. "I think the family had a line and he fell right about at the bottom of that line," Penn baseball coach Bob Seddon, who spent several days with DeRosa watching the College World Series in Omaha, said. "He got fifth round money in the seventh round." DeRosa also cited the Braves recent success working with young players as instrumental in his decision. "My decision could have been different," he said. "The Braves offered me a more than adequate contract for my draft position. [And] I like the way they do things -- six out of eight players in their starting line-up have come through the minor league system." Another point in Atlanta' favor was the team's desire to start DeRosa as a shortstop, the position he played at Penn and wanted to continue at as a professional. At 6-foot-1, 185 pounds, DeRosa is quite a bit bigger than the average shortstop. "A bunch of teams wanted me to move to third base," he said. "The Braves were one of five or six teams that wanted me to play short." Getting the call from the Braves was not a surprise. DeRosa was contacted by most big league teams, but the Braves had expressed more interest than most. After negotiating a contract for about five hours, DeRosa signed. He was then assigned to the Braves short-season A ball team in the Northwest League, the Eugene (Ore.) Emeralds. DeRosa will begin his professional career on June 19, when the Emeralds play the first game of a 76-game season. Paul Runge, a former Braves middle infielder, will manage the team. The adjustment to pro ball is often difficult, especially hitting with wood bats instead of the aluminum ones college players use. DeRosa, though, has already tackled that problem. The 21 year-old was playing in the Cape Cod League, an amateur league that attracts some of the best college talent in the country every summer and which bans aluminum bats, until he signed with the Braves. "That was probably the biggest thing I did that helped me," DeRosa said. "Just the experience of playing with the country's No.1 talent and using the wood bat." One man who knows what DeRosa will be going through is Doug Glanville, the Penn alum who joined the Chicago Cubs last weekend from their AAA affiliate. "You don't play a big schedule here [at Penn]," the 25 year-old outfielder said. "It takes a little adjusting to get [ready] to play every day. You're talking about 144 games and they're almost consecutive." DeRosa enjoyed a stellar two-sport career for the Quakers. He logged most of the playing time at quarterback for Penn during the past two seasons. The strong-armed, but sometimes erratic, field general missed his freshman year with a back injury. For all the trouble a lost starting quarterback causes Penn coach Al Bagnoli, DeRosa's signing does settle the question of whether he would be granted a fifth year of eligibility due to injury. Had he decided to continue his collegiate athletic career, DeRosa was a lock to become the school's all-time leader in all major passing categories. He ended last season a scant 69 yards short of the Jimmy McGeehan's mark of 3954 yards, meaning that the record would likely have fallen on opening day at Dartmouth. But under less pressure, DeRosa truly excelled at baseball, where his ability to make the long throw across the diamond dazzled scouts. Only a poor year at bat kept him from the top five rounds. By draft day, he saw his future in the horsehide, not the pigskin. "Football was not a factor -- he's a baseball player," Seddon said. Although his Penn athletic career is a thing of the past, he'll be on campus this fall fulfilling a promise to his mother by completing the requirements for a Wharton degree. Whether he can fulfill another promise, his baseball talent, is now the question.