MIAMI \u2014 During his yearlong recruitment of players to form an American baseball dream team, Mark DeRosa didn\u2019t seek a full-time designated hitter.<\/p>\n
But he couldn\u2019t quit Kyle Schwarber<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re building out a roster like this, having just a cemented DH is probably not the way to go with just the construction and trying to make every piece fit,\u201d DeRosa said Monday. \u201cBut he\u2019s just so special to the group that he trumps all that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Bryce Harper one step away from winning a title after Team USA tops Dominican Republic to reach WBC final<\/a><\/p>\n And not only because Schwarber will be Team USA\u2019s cleanup hitter here Tuesday night for all the World Baseball Classic marbles. It won\u2019t surprise anyone within the sport, least of all Phillies<\/a> fans, that his gravitational pull as a leader exists even on a team packed with superstars.<\/p>\n To wit: As the Americans worked out on the eve of the final, 13 hours after vanquishing the homer-fueled Dominican Republic<\/a> in the semifinals, Schwarber hit in the first group with Bryce Harper<\/a>, Aaron Judge, Alex Bregman, and Bobby Witt Jr., all of whom turned batting practice into an impromptu home-run derby.<\/p>\n Then, as others returned to the clubhouse, Schwarber hung out around the cage to watch the subsequent groups and carry on conversations with Gunnar Henderson, Roman Anthony, and Pete Crow-Armstrong, three of the youngest players on the roster.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have much to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Truth be told, Schwarber doesn\u2019t know how to do it any other way.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s your best friend in grammar school,\u201c DeRosa said. \u201dHe\u2019s the guy you want to go to dinner with. He doesn\u2019t take himself too seriously, but understands the magnitude of what\u2019s being asked of him, keeps everybody calm in the dugout. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd the back of the baseball card says he\u2019s one of the best power hitters our sport has.\u201d<\/p>\n DeRosa enlisted Schwarber to play for Team USA in this tournament three years ago and came to regard him as \u201cthe chemistry guy.\u201d The Americans went to the final and lost to Japan amid the Hollywood ending<\/a> of Shohei Ohtani striking out Mike Trout.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Dreaming of a baseball Dream Team: What the USA roster might look like for the 2028 L.A. Olympics<\/a><\/p>\n Since then, Schwarber hit 141 homers, more than only Ohtani (153) and Judge (148). Never mind, then, that he doesn\u2019t play defense. Schwarber was a \u201cno-brainer,\u201d in DeRosa\u2019s words, to rejoin Team USA.<\/p>\n And until Sunday night, when Judge made a perfect throw from right field to cut down Fernando Tat\u00eds Jr. at third base in the signature play of the victory over the Dominican, Schwarber\u2019s tiebreaking two-run homer against Great Britain in pool play may have represented the U.S.\u2019 best moment in the tournament.<\/p>\n Judge is the captain of Team USA. He gave a speech when the team gathered two weeks ago in Arizona and stood up in the clubhouse to acknowledge Henderson, Anthony, starter Paul Skenes, and five relievers for their star turns in the victory over the Dominican.<\/p>\n But a few U.S. players credited Schwarber for helping to settle everyone\u2019s stomach last week in Houston after a preliminary-round loss to Italy caused them to sweat for 24 hours about advancing to the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously it stung and we didn\u2019t know if we were going to get in, and he had something to say,\u201d said Anthony, the Red Sox\u2019s 21-year-old budding star and youngest player on Team USA. \u201cAnd then we got in, and he\u2019s had something to say every game. I\u2019ve learned a ton just from watching him.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe a dose of adversity brought the team together. After sneaking out the back door in pool play when Italy knocked off Mexico, the U.S. held on to defeat Canada in the quarterfinals before the rousing victory over the D.R. and was awaiting the Italy-Venezuela winner in the finals.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want to control your own destiny, and we let that get out of our hands,\u201d Schwarber said. \u201cThere\u2019s no excuses. We did it to ourselves. So, yeah, a little slap in the face, and it got us ready to go out there for the quarters and the semis.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Aaron Nola got a gauge of his training with a \u2018master class\u2019 start for Italy. Will it lead to a bounceback season?<\/a><\/p>\n Espresso baseball<\/p>\n Italy\u2019s roster is comprised mostly of Italian Americans. But then there\u2019s former Phillies minor leaguer Sam Aldegheri, who was born in Verona, Italy, and grew up playing baseball there.<\/p>\n Aldegheri, a left-handed pitcher who went to the Angels in the 2024 deadline trade for closer Carlos Est\u00e9vez, played a role in Italy\u2019s Cinderella run to the semifinals by making two starts, including 4\u2154 shutout innings against Brazil.<\/p>\n Could Italy\u2019s success in the WBC translate to a rise in baseball\u2019s popularity in the country?<\/p>\n \u201cI think the game is growing,\u201d Aldegheri said. \u201cBack home in Italy, I have been in a lot of camps during the offseason working with kids, and I have seen a lot of experienced coaches trying to help the game to grow.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are starting to do these academies in every region, every city. I have seen a lot of kids, they start from 6 to 8. Hopefully next couple years we will have better technology, too, more sponsors hopefully come in and just try to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n Extra bases<\/p>\n Italy manager Francisco Cervelli on why he decided to start Aaron Nola<\/a> in the semifinals against Venezuela rather than a potential final, as originally scheduled: \u201cMy gut. I think Nola\u2019s the right person.\u201d The Phillies agreed with Nola starting on regular (four days\u2019) rest. \u2026 Phillies prospect Dante Nori wasn\u2019t sure how much he would play for Team Italy. But after a solid showing in the exhibition games, he started every game in left field<\/a> and was 7-for-16 with two homers entering the semifinals. \u2026 Royals first baseman Vinny Pasquantino on Italy\u2019s roster: \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of stereotypical Italians on this team. There\u2019s a lot of guys from New Jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 During his yearlong recruitment of players to form an American baseball dream team, Mark DeRosa didn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64414,69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-140517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-kyle-schwarber-veteran-leadership-team-usa-world-baseball-classic","9":"tag-philadelphia","10":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","11":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}