Bob Tufts will celebrate a lot of anniversaries in 2007, including the 25th anniversary of his marriage to Suzanne Israel and his 30th Princeton University class reunion.

This year also marks the 25th anniversary of his conversion to Judaism.

"Having grown up and questioning my beliefs a little more, I was more attuned to trying to live a better life in the here and now rather than in the hereafter," said Tufts, who pitched for the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals from 1981 to '83.

Raised in the United Church of Christ, Tufts said his family offered no objection to his decision to convert. "They were upset with the way the Protestant church was going," he said.

"The church left me more than I left the church."

While working during the off-season in the sports information department at the University of Virginia in 1980, Tufts began the conversion process, studying with Rabbi Sheldon Ezring, then head of the school's Hillel. He continued his studies during the season, reading and "doing homework," all the while trying to keep a low profile. "I kept it private because I feel it should be a private issue," he said. He praised two teammates – Gary Lavelle with the Giants and the late Dan Quisenberry with the Royals, both evangelical Christians – for their support. "Both were religious and politically attuned, and there was no issue" surrounding his religious choices, Tufts said.

But that wasn't always the case. "Baseball was a southern game for a long time," he said. "Many managers came from the region, and some minority players suffered for it. There were huge problems for urban blacks and Jews who openly held their faith."

A defining moment came while Tufts was in the Giants' minor league system. Sitting in the bullpen with another pitcher one day, "the conversation turned toward religion, which can be a problem in many cases." The other player, Tufts said, "basically started to – I would say proselytizing would be a nice word, and he asked me if I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior. I told him I was converting to Judaism. He looked at me…and his eyes kind of bugged out and he said, ‘Well, then, you're going to hell,' and turned back to watch the ballgame."

The incident reminded Tufts of theological discussions he had with evangelical classmates at Princeton, who held that Jews who died in the Holocaust, according to "strict religious rule: since they did not accept Jesus Christ, they're going to hell." The evangelicals also said, Tufts recalled, that "those who killed them, if they say they're sorry, will experience the eternal bliss of heaven. That's an illogical concept in my mind."

After retiring from baseball in 1983, Tufts completed his MBA degree from Columbia University. He now lives in Queens and works as a vice president at Jefferies, a brokerage firm in Manhattan.

Last year, Tufts and Elliott Maddox – East Orange native, former major leaguer, and fellow convert – spent two weeks in Israel, teaching the game to aspiring athletes in a program sponsored by the Israel Association of Baseball. "It was the 10 days in between the soldiers' being kidnapped and the war in Lebanon," Tufts said. "The Phantom jets were flying overhead when we were out in Kibbutz Gezer doing the clinics.

"I wish I had more time to do these things," he said. "It was really an interesting experience."

Tufts, Maddox, and several other Jewish ex-ballplayers participated in a three-day symposium in August 2004 at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY. Last December, Tufts participated in a program on the contribution of Jews to baseball at the Yogi Berra Museum and Education Center at Montclair State University, where he was accompanied by his wife, Suzanne Israel – whom he met at Princeton – and their daughter, Abigail, a junior at the Berkshire School in Sheffield, Mass. Tufts said he was "comforted" by her involvement in Jewish activities at her school.

Tufts said he was happy with all the decisions he had made. "[Detroit Tigers pitcher] Mark Fidrych said it best: Baseball is a great job. You can wake up at three o'clock and [still] show up early to work."