Umpire Profile
Nick Rosa
By Gary Reals
Blues, Nick Rosa is one of those young guys who dabbled in umpiring for a few years, but then got serious, got committed, got trained up and in 2024, Nick says “I took off in full stride!” Indeed he did! Observes Rob Porter: “I’ve never experienced anything like that before. He was literally shot out of a cannon!”
During his first few years with MAC, Nick was working full-time and along with wife Nicole, had begun raising a family. He was sort of tip-toeing into the umpire world. And obviously, like many of us, he was slowly but inexorably seduced. During 2021, ’22 and ’23, Rob Porter says, Rosa worked 20 to 30 games a year. “Then in 2024, in just one year, it was really crazy, he worked right around 300 games!” At season’s end in 2024, Nick Rosa was recognized and awarded “Iron Man” status.
And, you might ask just what has he accomplished here in 2025, as it slides to its conclusion? Well, Brothers, Nick jumped right into the Wendelstedt Umpire School in January, which sadly is destined to become the next to last session of that hallowed training ground in Florida. From there he attended the Umpire Placement Course which led him to the Atlantic Baseball League, in addition to a full diet of MAC games. And now, suffice to say, Nick Rosa is flat out determined to make umpiring his career. Only question: how high will he fly?
MAC Training Chief Paul Porto describes Nick this way: “He’s hungry. He’s a sponge for information and training. He’s conscientious.”
Nick Rosa first arrived in the DMV from South Jersey in 2016 and went to work for the U.S. Supreme Court Police. In the wake of the Capitol riot right across the street in 2021, Nick decided it was a good time to leave that position. He went to work as a security official for Montgomery County Public Schools for a few years. But he wasn’t particularly happy nor fulfilled there either.
Dispirited and disappointed, Nick was surfing around the internet one day when perhaps a moment of divine intervention took hold. Nick clicked on Indeed. Voila! Blues, how many of us have found MAC on Indeed??? Well Rosa did. He completed an on-line application and no surprise here: Nick was invited in. During April 2021, he attended a 2-man training camp where he recalls it being “very intense and everybody knew what they were doing….but me!” That camp is where he sorta learned the A, B, C’s….as in the 2-man field positions. Nick “slowly got the jitters out” and ended up working several rec games solo.
At the time, he was still working school security in Montgomery County but was determined to slowly increase his umpiring load. Gradually he thought he just might have stumbled into something more attuned to his liking. By 2024, he told Nicole he was considering making umpiring a full-time commitment. “She called it a no-brainer! With enough games, I could make the same money and do something I really enjoy.”
So, Nick Rosa not only charted, but has now committed to, “higher and higher goals and a path I can take to get there.”
MAC star umpire Andrew Mack has worked many games with Nick the past two years during which they’ve become close friends. Says Andrew, “He’s all in and devoted to his craft and he has great aspirations.”
This from Paul Porto, “He’s got the drive, desire and will and really cares about doing this and doing it right.”
Bottom line: Nick Rosa loves umpiring. Listen to him: “There’s nothing more exhilarating than making a good call and getting booed when you know you got it right.” Oh yeah!
Coming up in 2026, Nick hopes to continue working in the Atlantic League where he relishes umping games with the likes of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs and the Dirty Birds of Charleston, WV.. But he also has set a goal for a regular diet of Division III games and dreams that Division I some day “would be pretty awesome too.“
But that’s not all there is about Nick Rosa, Blues. There’s more! Another long-term goal is to become a MAC training instructor. He wants to share his umpiring gifts. Looking back over his first handful of years with MAC, Nick remembers, “How lost I was and how far I’ve come, and I’d love to be able to share all of that.” Brothers, be aware, Rob Porter, has duly taken note: “It’s a pretty obvious step that would be welcome” he states.
Says Andrew Mack, “He only continues to get better and those around him get better too. He’s the type you want to work with and learn from.” Andrew is confident about Nick’s potential for higher callings, “I have no doubt whatsoever because of his mindset. He’s always looking to improve. Every game, he works on something.”
Uh, oh, I almost forgot. There’s even more coming in the lives of Nicole & Nick Rosa in 2026. Already the loving parents of 4-year-old Stella and 2-year-old Nora, another Rosa is making its way around the bases. expected home plate arrival: January. Doesn’t sound like Dad’s going to be returning to Florida for the Wendelstedt finale, ya think.
At the threshold of the quickly approaching new year, Nick Rosa is “just happy to be here….keeping an open mind.” And Blues, do be assured: Nick is locked and loaded, perched and poised and ready to pounce.
As Rob Porter says, “The sky is his limit.” Indeed!