Former Quaker Mark DeRosa Tabbed Team USA Manager For World Baseball Classic

PHILADELPHIA – Mark DeRosa, a two-sport star for the University of Pennsylvania in the 1990's, was recently named manager of the defending champion Team USA for the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

After his football and baseball playing days at Penn concluded, DeRosa was selected by the Atlanta Braves in the 1996 MLB draft, making his major league debut two seasons later. Over the next 16 seasons, DeRosa played with eight different teams as a true utility player, playing every infield position as well as both corner outfield spots. At the plate, he finished his career with a .268 average and exactly 100 home runs.

After retiring following the end of the 2013 season, he joined MLB Network as an analyst less than two months later, a position he's held ever since.

Modeled after the FIFA World Cup and organized in large part as a response to the removal of baseball as an Olympic sport in 2005, the WBC has been contested four times since 2006, with the 2023 edition scheduled to take place March 8-21 with games played in Taichung, Tokyo, Phoenix and Miami.

20 teams will compete in four pools, with the top two teams in each pool advancing to the quarterfinal round. The U.S. pool will also consist of Mexico, Colombia, Canada and another team to be determined during qualifying games next month.

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