Bob Tufts

Quality 0.50 · 1 view · Updated 2 months ago

American baseball player (1955–2019)

title: "Bob Tufts" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1955-births", "2019-deaths", "columbia-business-school-alumni", "converts-to-judaism", "deaths-from-cancer-in-new-york-(state)", "deaths-from-multiple-myeloma-in-the-united-states", "harwich-mariners-players", "jewish-american-baseball-players", "kansas-city-royals-players", "major-league-baseball-pitchers", "people-from-forest-hills,-queens", "princeton-tigers-baseball-players", "san-francisco-giants-players", "sportspeople-from-medford,-massachusetts", "baseball-players-from-middlesex-county,-massachusetts", "21st-century-american-jews", "waterbury-giants-players", "20th-century-american-sportsmen", "bear-stearns-people"] description: "American baseball player (1955–2019)" topic_path: "technology/web" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Tufts" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American baseball player (1955–2019) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox baseball biography"]

Field	Value
name	Bob Tufts
position	Pitcher
image	1981 Valley National Bank Phoenix Giants - Bob Tufts.jpg
caption	Tufts with the Phoenix Giants 1981
bats	Left
throws	Left
birth_date
death_date
birth_place	Medford, Massachusetts, U.S.
death_place	New York, New York, U.S.
debutleague	MLB
debutdate	August 10
debutyear	1981
debutteam	San Francisco Giants
finalleague	MLB
finaldate	May 6
finalyear	1983
finalteam	Kansas City Royals
statleague	MLB
stat1label	Win–loss record
stat1value	2–0
stat2label	Earned run average
stat2value	4.71
stat3label	Strikeouts
stat3value	28
::

San Francisco Giants ()
Kansas City Royals (–) Robert Malcolm Tufts (November 2, 1955 – October 4, 2019) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher who played for the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals between 1981 and 1983.

Early life

Tufts was born in Medford, Massachusetts, and raised in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, where he attended Lynnfield High School. He attended Princeton University, where he earned a degree in Economics in 1977. In 1975, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League.

Baseball career

Tufts was drafted by the Giants out of Princeton University in the 12th round of the 1977 Major League Baseball draft. In 1979 he led the Texas League in wins and complete games (12) as he was 14-10 with a 2.45 ERA for the Shreveport Captains.

He made his debut for the Giants in 1981, and pitched in 11 games for them that season. He held the distinction of being the last Princeton University baseball player to appear in a major league baseball game until Chris Young debuted with the Rangers on August 24, 2004.

The following spring, Tufts was traded to the Royals along with Vida Blue. During the 1982 and 1983 seasons he appeared in 16 games for the Royals. In 1982 he was 2nd in the American Association in games (59), and 3rd in saves (12), and had a 1.60 ERA, as he pitched for the Omaha Royals. Midseason in 1983, he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for Charlie Leibrandt, but never appeared in a major league game again.

Tufts converted to Judaism, one of six major league baseball players who converted to Judaism during their careers. He was a participant in a 2005 seminar at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown on Jews and Baseball, and also performed baseball clinics in Israel.

Personal life

Tufts earned an MBA degree in finance from Columbia University in 1986. He lived in Forest Hills, New York. He worked in futures and foreign exchange sales and trading, and worked at Bear Stearns, Credit Agricole, Lehman Brothers, Thomson McKinnon, and Jefferies Financial Group.

He was an adjunct professor at New York University, where he taught business development. He also taught sports marketing and management and principles of entrepreneurship as a Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor at the Yeshiva University Sy Syms School of Business and organization behavior in sports at Manhattanville College.

His wife, Suzanne Israel Tufts, served as Assistant Secretary of Administration at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 2018. They have a daughter, Abigail Tufts.

In 2009, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. He underwent pill-based and liquid chemotherapy and reached a recovery point at which he could undergo and autologous stem cell transplant. As of May 2010, he was in almost complete remission.

Tufts was a patient advocate and founder of My Life Is Worth It. He was an active speaker and frequently tweeted about issues regarding the need to involve patients more in the healthcare process.

Tufts died on October 4, 2019, from an infection brought on by complications from a stem cell transplant on August 23. He was 63. He was buried in Beth Israel Cemetery in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey.

Notes

References

"Bob Tufts Minor Leagues Statistics & History".
(2018-07-17). "Bob Tufts". HuffPost.
"Major League Baseball Players From the Cape Cod League". capecodbaseball.org.
(2007). "Bob Tufts". Sports Reference, Inc..
(1970-01-01). "1979 Texas League Pitching Leaders". Baseball-Reference.com.
(August 23, 2004). "Young Takes Mound for Rangers". Ivyleaguesports.com.
(March 31, 1982). "Blue Traded to Royals". The New York Times.
(1970-01-01). "1982 American Association Pitching Leaders". Baseball-Reference.com.
(June 8, 1983). "Royals send Tufts to Reds for Leibrandt". Lawrence Journal-World.
(April 19, 2007). "Ex-big leaguer celebrates the day he switched teams". NJ Jewish News.
Freneau. (November 2, 2008). "Happy Birthday Bob Tufts". Royals Review.
Perlman, Rabbi Jay. (September 22, 2007). "Facing a Difficult Year.....Together". Temple Beth Shalom.
Tufts, Bob. (January 12, 2008). "A Strange, But True Baseball Story?? Former player called to testify before Congress". BlackAthlete.
(2018-07-17). "Bob Tufts". HuffPost.
"Bob Tufts (@TuftsB) | Twitter".
(2019-10-04). "Bob Tufts, Syms Professor, Passes Away at 63 after Long Cancer Battle".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::