Former Yankee Scott Brosius goes back to college

Jim Baumbach

11:47 AM EDT, May 9, 2008

Scott Brosius was only 35 years old when he retired as a player after the 2001 season, a decision he made primarily to spend more time with his family at their Oregon home.

In the years since the former Yankees third baseman has found what he called "a very healthy balance" staying involved with the game he loves while still at home with his family.

His answer? He went back to college.

First Brosius returned to Linfield College as a student in 2002 to get his business degree, finishing the final year of credits he missed when he was drafted after his junior year. Then he became an assistant baseball coach, a job he loved for five years.

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Now, this year he's risen to be the head coach of the Division III school at which he starred as a player two decades ago. And he doesn't plan on going anywhere for a long, long time.

"For me this isn't a stepping stone type of job where I'll start here and work my way up," Brosius said by phone on Thursday afternoon. "At least as long as the kids are in the house, this will remain home for us. For the next 5-10 years, it would be hard to see myself anywhere else."

The life of the Division III baseball coach isn't exactly glamorous, especially when compared to his four years on the road with the Yankees staying in five-star hotels and being treated as a rock star. Brosius doesn't mind.

"Linfield is a place that is so near and dear to me," he said. "We've lived here since '91, so this is our home."

There are no athletic scholarships in Division III. The challenge, Brosius said, is finding the right kid, and there are so many variables. He's got to find someone who has decent grades, who can either pay for school or land an academic scholarship, and who is good enough to play at a higher level but who might not play right away.

"It's a tough sell at times, especially if he's getting money from a different place," Brosius said. "We talk about the overall quality of the experience they will get on the field and academically. You talk in terms of the whole picture a lot more than the just the baseball experience itself."

Brosius likes the recruiting process just as much as he likes the in-game managing, though that shouldn't be too surprising. He is well spoken and his love of all things Linfield has always been evident, so you can see how he would come off well sitting in the living room of a recruit while selling his school to the kid's parents.

It's an easy sell on the field. In Brosius' first season as head coach, Linfield went 30-10 and won its conference.

But after the Linfield players celebrated their regular-season conference championship by piling on the pitcher's mound, like all championship teams do, Brosius pulled them aside and said he'd like them to practice that dogpile some more. It needs work, he said. And of course they would listen to a guy who celebrated three World Series titles in four years with the Yankees.

"When I share my experiences with the guys, one of the things I talk about is that there's nothing more special in the game than that dogpile at the end of the season," Brosius said. "That's the culmination of all the work, all the effort, the struggles, everything, and when you're jumping on that pile it makes it all worthwhile."

"After we won the conference, I told them, you know, you weren't very good at that. We need more practice."

Linfield's next opportunity for a dogpile comes next week when the regionals start, as a series of wins there will advance the team into the Division III World Series.

Said Brosius, "Hopefully we'll get to try that dogpile again."