DeRosa says he's feeling fine as he heads to Chicago for tests

MESA, Ariz. -- Saying he felt great, second baseman Mark DeRosa stopped by Cubs camp Monday on his way to Chicago, where he will undergo further tests on his heart.

DeRosa, who celebrates his 33rd birthday today, will head for Northwestern Memorial Hospital to see a cardiologist.

DeRosa was hospitalized Saturday after complaining of a rapid heartbeat. He was released Sunday.

A Cubs team doctor said Sunday that DeRosa experienced an episode of an atrial dysrhythmia, during which the heart's electrical impulses don't fire the right way.

He was given medication over the weekend to get his heart back into rhythm. DeRosa said one possibility to fix the problem once and for all is to undergo a procedure aimed at correcting it.

One treatment often used for this condition is called catheter ablation, during which a catheter is inserted into the heart and energy sent to the heart "disconnects" the pathway of the abnormal rhythm.

"Until Mark sees the cardiologist in Chicago, it's too early for the Cubs to speculate what, if any, procedure would be," a Cubs spokesman said Monday.

DeRosa downplayed the seriousness of the procedure, which he said is common, and expressed hope he could be back on the playing field by Monday.

"If it is (surgery), it's an outpatient one," he said. "A lot of people take medicine. I don't want to deal with that. I'm 32 years old. I don't want to be on medication for the rest of my life if there's a procedure I can do."

DeRosa said he has suffered from an irregular heartbeat since he was a teenager. Whenever it would occur, he said he treated it with breathing exercises.

"I've had (it) from laying on the couch watching TV to middle of a ballgame," he said. "It's never been an issue. The other day, it just seemed to, not get progressively worse, but last a lot longer. I kind of needed some help to get me back into the right heartbeat.

"That's why the precautions were taken to go over to the hospital, because they have the medicine to flip it back."

DeRosa came off the field Saturday morning after complaining of a rapid heartbeat while taking part in fielding drills. A team doctor saw him and performed an EKG, which showed some abnormality.

The Cubs placed a 911 call, and DeRosa was wheeled off on a stretcher to a local hospital. He was seated upright on the stretcher as he was wheeled out the front door of the Cubs' Fitch Park facility.

"Scared?" he asked. "I don't think I was scared. The looks on everyone's faces make you nervous. And when the paramedics are called, I tried to talk my way out of that because I knew how that would be perceived … but they do what they feel is necessary.

"Would I have liked to have driven undercover to the hospital by myself? Yeah, but I understand the ramifications if something were to go wrong. We did everything right."

DeRosa reported that he had experienced episodes of the irregular heartbeat "maybe once or twice a month." However, Saturday was different.

"Some will last 10 seconds, some will last five minutes," he said. "This one happened to last a lot longer than that. It was one of those things where it started to get uncomfortable. At no time did I think I was going to lose consciousness.

"Some of my teammates made some comments, and I appreciate it, but some of them didn't know what was going on. I wasn't dizzy. I wasn't feeling nauseous. It wasn't any of that. It was a matter of my heart was beating irregularly and my techniques that I use to get it back to normal weren't working.

"The next step is to go to the hospital, and they have the intravenous drugs and within 15 minutes it was fine."

DeRosa is a key member of the Cubs. He batted .293 last year with 10 homers, 72 RBI and a high on-base percentage of .371. He also knows the Cubs are pursuing Baltimore's Brian Roberts. Such a trade would drop DeRosa into a "super-utility" role, something he probably could handle well, based on his playing six positions last year.

On Monday, that was all secondary.

"The important thing with Mark is we get him well so that when he's back he can get on a schedule and not miss any more time, because he's falling behind," manager Lou Piniella said. "Believe me, I'm not concerned about the falling behind. I'm concerned about getting him well and coming out here."