Life
De la Rosa befriended then Boston Red Sox pitcher and fellow Dominican, Pedro Martínez, who began to take de la Rosa to playoff games as a good luck charm during the 2004 MLB playoffs. He was often referred to as "Pedro's Lucky Midget."
He was a main attraction in the "Hermanos Mazzini" and "Las Águilas Humanas" circuses, which marketed him as the Guinness World Record-holder for world's smallest man at 54 cm (21.25 inches), though this organization does not endorse this claim.
While no official diagnosis of the cause of de la Rosa's short stature is known, it has been speculated that he was born with the genetic syndrome MOPD II (microcephalic osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism type II). The primary symptoms of the syndrome include extreme proportional short stature, as well as distinct facial features similar to those exhibited by Nelson de la Rosa. A recent documentary by Granada Television highlighting the syndrome was aired on TLC several times in 2006. There are approximately 100 known cases of MOPD II in the world at this time, spread throughout various races and ethnic backgrounds.
He also went by the American name of Phil Stone while acting in the U.S.
Read more about this topic: Nelson De La Rosa
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