Resilient Rosa making most of fifth season at OSU
— The sterling silver thumbprint hangs from a chain around Andrew Rosa’s neck, a small but powerful reminder.
In the fifth and final year of an embattled Oklahoma State baseball career, Rosa has every reason to look back on his time as a Cowboy with scorn and disappointment. Time on the bench, Tommy John surgery and a nagging bruise in his left heel hampered a future in the sport that once seemed so bright.
He keeps those unappreciative thoughts out of his head. He serves as a mentor and an example to younger teammates, a symbol of positivity. OSU coach Josh Holliday compares Rosa’s presence to having another assistant in the locker room.
“He has grown probably, learned more about life in the last five years
than 99 out of 100 people that go to college,” Holliday said. “Sometimes, as an adult and a coach, you admire what young people can handle and go through.”
The thumbprint marks Rosa’s deepest valley in a life of highs and lows. Its ridges belonged to Nathan.
Like most brothers, the Rosa boys turned the lightest tasks into competition. It wasn’t enough for them to go head-to-head as fishermen, wakeboarders, cornhole players and backyard wrestlers. With Nick, the eldest of the three brothers, having his own room in the family’s Owasso home, Andrew and Nathan shared a room and a bunk bed until Andrew was 10. Almost every night ended with a fight over who got to sleep on the bottom bunk.
Andrew constantly claimed a fear of the top. He imagined rolling off in the middle of the night, a protective rail not enough to calm him.
The 23-year-old now realizes the real reason he fought Nathan so hard over a bed.
“Just ’cause he wanted the bottom bunk,” Andrew said, “is probably why I wanted the bottom bunk.”
Nathan committed suicide July 31, 2013. He was 20 years old.
Andrew always wanted to emulate Nathan, two years his senior. As Andrew busied himself with sports, Nathan did everything he could beyond that. He didn’t feel Andrew’s fears when it came to the top bunk.
He was the wild boy in the trio, the one who wouldn’t hesitate to jump off the highest cliff during a day at the lake.
Andrew admitted that Nathan, once a student as the OSU Institute of Technology studying cyber forensics and cyber security, was “definitely the smartest” of the three.
His outdoor expertise helped him become an Eagle Scout. He was a black belt in karate, too.
“They don’t just give those out,” Andrew said. “He really taught me how to think outside of the box, to do more and be better.
“I wanted to always be more than just a baseball player.”
When Nathan died, Andrew was less than a month away from beginning college. Nick, then a football player at Drake, was home for the summer. Their parents, Mike and MaryAnn, questioned whether they could ever return to work.
“It’s like life doesn’t go on,” Nick said. “Everything just kind of stays still. You’re in disbelief. Like, how are we ever gonna be whole again?”
With their heads weighted with questions no one plans to asks, the Rosas turned to family friends for support, many of whom they had met through sports.
“We had people come in and take over our lives,” Mike said, “because we just couldn’t do it.”
Andrew rarely discussed Nathan’s death, especially once he headed to OSU. Instead, baseball represented an escape.
In his new coaches and teammates, he found a support system, one that offered love and care when he needed it.
“It was the most difficult time of our lives,” MaryAnn said. “But the coaches, the parents, the players rallied around him and us, and I’ll never forget that.
“It meant everything. It meant absolutely everything to our family.”
Andrew’s energy and erratic sleep schedule often kept his roommates, fellow Tulsa-area players Blake Battenfield, Thomas Hatch and Trey Cobb, up late. Still, they helped support him however they could.
“He handled it so much better than I think anybody that I know would’ve,” Cobb said. “He hated bringing anybody else down, so he was always that guy that tried to make sure everybody else is happy before he makes sure he himself is happy.”
That fall, while the family was in Iowa for a Drake football game, Andrew’s high school coach, Larry Turner, visited and surprised them with the necklaces featuring Nathan’s thumbprint. He had done the same for his wife after her father died.
“We gave them to them and told them, ‘Hey, Nathan will always be with you,’” Turner said. “It was just doing something for a family that we cared about.”
That thumbprint has been with Andrew since. Through a freshman season that saw early starts turn into a year spent mostly on the bench. Through a campaign decimated by a torn elbow ligament. Through two years spent as a platoon and bench bat.
“Nobody’s gone through more adversity than Andrew Rosa,” Cobb said.
“His resiliency is so incredible.”
It’s culminated in what has been his best season as a Cowboy. Andrew is hitting .280 with a team-best .430 on-base percentage entering this weekend’s series against Kansas, playing wherever he can to get on the field.
The Boston Red Sox took him in the 30th round of the 2013 MLB Draft as a shortstop, but Andrew has done most of his work with OSU at first, second and third. This season, when Holliday wanted to try other players in the Cowboys’ infield, he asked Andrew to play a center field, a position he had never played collegiately.
Andrew didn’t hesitate to say yes.
“The kid just wants to play,” Holliday said. “That’s what you want all your players to be: ‘Coach, just get me in the lineup and I’ll do whatever the team needs me to do.’”
Andrew credits freeness and confidence for his success in his final year. He traces those traits to Nathan.
“Going through something like that that early in my life really made me realize how precious things are and how anything can me taken away from you,” Andrew said. “Having that mindset, it being my last year, I was just gonna go out and be me and have fun.”
He’s done that off the field, too. Through assistant coach James Vilade’s Keeper of the Game foundation, Andrew has put together an event later this month for 150 special-needs children in the area, organizing meals with Chick-Fil-A and providing T-shirts.
“He’s gonna succeed no matter what he does in life,” MaryAnn said. “He’s gonna give it his all. That’s just the kind of kid he is.”
Despite lost playing time over the years, Andrew doesn’t hesitate to revel in every moment. With his collegiate career nearing its end and an uncertain draft stock facing him, he’s enjoying what remains of his journey.
He knows much worse can be lost.
“The word is blessed, man,” Andrew said. “It’s been awesome to be here. If I could stay here for five more years, I would.
“I knew this was the right place as soon as I got here. I was never alone.”
A thumbprint hanging from his neck proves that much. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800273-8255. The Crisis Text Line is 741741.