DeRosa this season returns as featured analyst on "MLB Central" from 10:00am-1:00pm ETMLB NETWORK
MARK DEROSA hung up his spikes in ’13 after 16 years in the big leagues, and since then he has become a staple on MLB Network’s morning program “MLB CENTRAL.” DeRosa, who travels to the net’s N.J. headquarters from his family’s home in Atlanta, took THE DAILY through his prep for Opening Day and the rest of the weekend. He also touched on what early-season storylines he is following and which Baseball HOFer he typically hits the links with in the afternoons.
PLAY BALL: I left Tuesday night for New Jersey. Wednesday afternoon we did a walk-through on “MLB Central” to get a feel for everything. For Opening Day, I got to the office right around 6:45am ET. Then at 7:00am we had a production meeting with our producers RICH SAVINO, MARK CAPALBO and ETHAN KLEINBERG, as well as ROBERT FLORES and LAUREN SHEHADI, to go over what we felt should be the driving content that day. It’s pretty loosely based. During the season, I try to pick out the best 7:00pm ET game and then the best 10:00pm game that night. I focus on those to include our West Coast audience and build the beginning parts of the show around what I think are the best matchups. I do my best to honor the West Coast and stay up and watch whether MIKE TROUT is going off, or if the A’s are getting hot, whatever the case may be.
TWO IS BETTER THAN ONE: Everybody gets excited for Opening Day, myself included. But as a player I always struggled that day because I felt like it took me out of my routine with all the pomp and circumstance. I actually like day two better, and I feel the same way on our set. Day one everyone is a smidge more nervous than usual. You want to get everything right and make sure Opening Day is aptly taken care of. I enjoy the grind of the season itself. I like getting my feet wet and then grinding out the year.
STORYLINES TO WATCH: JACOB DEGROM vs. MAX SCHERZER in the NL East. It doesn’t get any better than that. Those guys will battle it out for the Cy Young, and that division is going to be an absolute dogfight all year. Citizens Bank is going to be going crazy over BRYCE HARPER too. Big things abound for the Phillies this year.
POST-"MLB CENTRAL": If there’s some serious day games on in the afternoon, I’ll get my eyeballs on those. If it’s mostly night games, I’ll either hit the gym or golf course in the afternoon. When the weather warms up and I’ve got JOHN SMOLTZ in town working for the week, as soon as 1:00pm comes we hit the links. We finish up by the time it gets dark, grab some dinner, and then I set my feet up and lock in on the night games. My dad and I were always in front of the TV breaking down games when I was growing up. So for me, to get paid and be able to sit back and give my opinion on the game is pretty awesome. Smoltz is the best golfer I’ve ever played with who isn’t a pro. Thank God he took a liking to me as a young-buck Brave back in the day. I was a utility player who snuck his golf clubs onto the plane and spent most of my mornings teeing it up with him at some really good tracks. We’ve been going at it for awhile.
HOME LIFE: I have two children. My daughter GABBY is a freshman in high school who plays volleyball. My son BROOKS is 9 and is fully embedded in travel baseball. As soon as our show ends on Friday, I jump on the first flight out of Newark -- normally around 2:30 -- and get to my front door around 6:00pm. Then, the weekends are spent either at the gym or ballpark watching my kids play. I’ll usually watch the Sunday night MLB game on the flight coming back at the end of the weekend. One of my favorite things to do in Atlanta is head down to Buckhead to catch a concert or comedy show. There’s also some unbelievable restaurants there, my favorite being this place called Umi. It’s hard to believe the best sushi restaurant in the world is in Atlanta, but it’s the best I’ve ever had.
