Dascenzo’s life in baseball started at Brownsville

He starred with the Falcons before going on to a long career as an MLB player and coach.

Brownsville High’s Doug Dascenzo neatly fits the description of being a baseball lifer. From his youth through the end of the 2024 season, he has been involved in the game in one capacity or another.

In high school, he was a star outfielder.

“My stats would be considered off the chart — the batting average was something around .600. I got a lot of acknowledgment from the pitching side as well, but all the good players in high school usually pitch and play somewhere else, so I wasn’t any different than other good high school players,” Dascenzo said. “I threw a no-hitter against Ringgold. That was one of the highlights from the high school standpoint, but obviously making my major league debut with the Cubs and all my time in baseball — 40 years.”

Dascenzo’s part of the state also produced big leaguer Bob Bailor out of Connellsville.

There was one local pitcher Dascenzo was pretty familiar with.

“Terry Mulholland from the Laurel Highlands area was well known,” he said. “We would hook up against each other and have our battles, so that’s one guy that went on and had a great career in the major leagues.”

Mulholland lasted 20 seasons, winning 124 games as a valuable lefty while playing for 11 teams, including the Pirates.

Dascenzo briefly rubbed elbows with another local star, Ken Griffey Jr.

“We played him the year I was in the American League (1993). You know, I would say hi to him, but not a whole lot else,” Dascenzo said of Junior.

When Dascenzo pitched his last high school game, he had no idea he’d wind up pitching in the majors in four games. Not only that, he did a fine job, striking out two major leaguers over five innings with a 0.00 ERA.

“I don’t know if my manager (Don Zimmer) knew my pitching background, but I definitely know that he knew that I was on the bench and I wasn’t good enough to play in the game, but maybe I could pitch, so it all worked out,” Dascenzo said. “I went out there and got out of it and saved a pitcher.” Dascenzo played against and with quite a few big names.

Naturally, he was impressed by Griffey Jr. “For sure. I mean, there’s a reason why he’s in the Hall of Fame, right? I was lucky enough to spend a little bit of time at the major league level with guys on various teams that I played for — the likes of Nolan Ryan, Ivan Rodriguez, Jose Canseco, and Juan Gonzalez in Texas,” he said. “Tony Gwynn in San Diego, and of course Ryne Sandberg and Andre Dawson in Chicago. I was lucky enough to be able to spend a little bit of time with a handful of those guys.”

He touched on a few other interesting teammates.

“Everybody had guys that kind of kept the team loose or was kind of a quiet leader like Dwight Smith. We came up through the minor leagues together with the Cubs, and he was that guy who would keep the guys loose, have a good time and have fun,” he said.

“Sandberg and Dawson were obviously our veteran leaders who really didn’t talk a whole lot, but they did show by example how to go about the business. So if you’re paying attention, you could learn.”

Dascenzo said he always kept a low profile. “I waited until I was called upon to do my job and I tried to do it to the best my ability, and I never really got into it with any other opponents,” he said.

When Dascenzo’s playing days were over, he still had many years of big league involvement ahead of him.

“I was in the Padres organization when I retired, and then went right into coaching with them,” he said. “I was a Double-A hitting coach in Mobile, Ala., in 1998, and in 1999, the outfield/base running coordinator. I did that for seven years and then I started managing with the same organization, managing through 2011. From there I went to the Braves and did the outfield coordinating for a couple of years.”

In 2014, he became the Braves’ third base coach. Then he returned to the Cubs, where it all began.

“This year was my last year with them,” he said.

It was back to Uniontown for Dascenzo, where he reflected on his career and his strongest contributions to his teams.

“Defense for sure. Hands down,” he said with confidence.

He also recalled some of the coaching staffs he worked with, such as the Padres’ crew of Rob Picciolo, Alan Trammell, Tim Flannery and manager Bruce Bochy, winner of four World Series.

As for life in retirement? “Everything’s fine,” he said with a smile. “My lovely wife Trish and I had four beautiful children, two boys and two girls, and our two daughters gave us each a grandchild in the last year and a half, so that’s all good.”