A gamer and a giver, taken away too soon - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
Rosie Santizo’s gifts were abundant, said Mariners broadcaster Rick Rizzs, his voice catching as he struggled to describe the void left by her death at age 29. She taught English and life skills to Latin-born players for the Red Sox, Orioles and Mariners, and was a self-taught artist who wowed people with her pen-and-ink drawings of ballplayers. But Santizo was more than a couple of lines on a résumé.
“You know how you encounter people who say they want to make a difference?” Rizzs said. “Well, she went out and did it.”
Santizo was killed in a car accident in Jordan, evidently as she was returning with friends from a visit to the Wadi Rum, a desert landscape of breathtaking rock formations. She was between semesters of a year-long exchange program in Kuwait, her grandfather Don Lovitt said, as part of her studies at the University of Washington. She’d gone back to school and was studying Arabic, but even as her life veered in a different direction, she had not abandoned her passion for baseball.
She was a huge part of the organization and her loss was very surprising. With the Latino population being abundant all around the M's organization over the years. Her love for baseball and impact to the team will be greatly missed.