This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola’s Marlins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
MIAMI – Every Major League ball club has its share of recognizable fans.
Remember the group of teenage boys that dressed up as conductors and brought a cardboard train to Dontrelle Willis’ starts in the 2000s?
What if I told you Marlins assistant pitching coach Rob Marcello was one of those fans?
When Marcello’s father passed away, his mother brainstormed ideas of what her four sons and two family friends could do to get out of the house. Marcello’s oldest brother could drive, so they decided to attend Marlins games.
“I grew up a fan, always a fan of baseball,” Marcello said. “I was dropped off at the field. The D-Train experience always kind of resonates with me. We went a lot, and now working for the Marlins, it's a really cool experience for not only me but my mom, my brothers. It's like a big family affair.”
Marcello’s late father owned an air conditioning business, which the dad of a childhood friend also helped at. Their cast of characters took some of the spare cardboard from the business and got to work.
“We could fold it up, put it in our car, get through the gates,” Marcello said. “It was literally made out of that. Spray paint black. Cut out the wheels. My mom had an idea, like, ‘Hey, put a little window in. Let's make them K markers.’ It was a hoot. And I remember being young and, man, you're sitting there and you're like, ‘I get to go to a game every day,’ not knowing anything about it, but it was a fun kind of family affair to do.”
The Marcello family, like the rest of the Fish faithful and baseball fans alike, caught D-Train Fever. How could they not after the fan-favorite southpaw’s ascent from Double-A Carolina to the Majors, which spearheaded a remarkable turnaround for the 2003 Marlins.
As a kid, Marcello even owned a pair of Willis’ Nike sneakers. His mom had gifted them as a reward – but only if he got straight A’s. Marcello didn’t honor his end of the bargain, though, so his mom returned them.
“The joy, the affectionality, how he approached the game,” Marcello said. “I'm also a left-handed pitcher. I must have done his motion that entire Little League for a while. I changed it just about every time I watched another left-hander pitch. I was like, ‘Oh, let's try this guy's delivery.'"
But Dontrelle was it.
“It's an awesome memory, the fact that I went to all these games. Dontrelle, he was a favorite. Favorite for the house, favorite for us. We met him in person. He offered us tickets every time we came. It was an awesome experience to be a Marlins fan, obviously, at that time with them also winning the World Series.”
Decades later, the 35-year-old Marcello is working for his hometown team after receiving a promotion. As Triple-A Jacksonville’s pitching coach in 2025, he helped lead the staff to the Triple-A national championship. As Major League assistant pitching coach, he is calling pitches from the dugout among other duties.
During Spring Training, Marcello told Single-A Jupiter pitching coach Tommy Phelps, a member of the 2003 squad, that he remembered watching him pitch. Phelps, a veteran of 75 MLB outings, was thrown off, so Marcello had to further explain himself.
“‘Dude, I was [one of] the guys in the D-Train outfit,’” Marcello said. “He's like, ‘No way.’ And I brought up some pictures, and he was like, ‘Oh my God.’ He's like, ‘I'm going to call Dontrelle right now.’ Any player I see, he's like, ‘Dude, we knew exactly who you guys were! We were talking about it in the clubhouse. We were talking about it all the time, like, I wonder if the D-Train people are going to be here.’”
Marcello, a 17th-round pick by the Phillies in the 2013 MLB Draft, spent just one season in professional baseball before embarking on a coaching career. Following his time with the Mariners’ organization as Minor League pitching coach at High-A Modesto (2019-20) and Triple-A Tacoma (‘21), Marcello crossed paths with Willis, a member of the Dodgers’ broadcast team, while serving as the Padres’ director of pitching (2022-24). But Marcello never brought up their shared past.
Until he does, the most important question is whether Marcello will break out his former conductor's outfit anytime soon. This spring, he endeared himself to Marlins newcomer Chris Paddack by wearing cowboy boots for his first pitch design session.
“My oldest brother still has all the outfits,” Marcello said. “He's in New York now, and he's like, ‘Man, I have the overalls we wore, the hat, the whistle we used to freaking blow every time he struck out people.’ They're like, ‘Hey, we're going to dress up one game.’ [I said] ‘Come to a game. Do whatever you want.’”