t's not every day that a rising star abandons a promising, profitable baseball career as a testimony to his relationship with Christ. But 25-year-old Trevor Bullock is no ordinary baseball player.

Trevor has been playing baseball ever since he can remember. Born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska, his official start came when he was about 6 years old and played tee ball with the Little Chiefs organization, a father-run team.

Trevor advanced from tee ball to the Lincoln Southeast High School baseball team, playing at various levels along the way.

"I was always the kid a little more excelled for my age.
I was the youngest on my team, so I played with older kids most of the time," says Trevor. "I progressed."

A Split-Religious Home
Trevor grew up in what he calls a "split-religious home." His mother, Ardyce, is an active Seventh-day Adventist. His father, Duaine, isn't even a Christian. "I've grown up as a Seventh-day Adventist," says Trevor, "but I haven't. I was spoon-fed some things, but never experienced anything outside of that. Church was [just] a social gathering, and I never really got involved."

Trevor's mother remembers when her son began to make his own decisions about being a Seventh-day Adventist. "When Trevor was about 14, he quit going to church, and I quit making him go," she says.

Her decision later proved to be wise. "My mom decided to let me go and let me make my own decisions," Trevor recalls. "I thank her for that . . . very much."

Trevor also made his own decisions about when to play baseball. "I went to public school, and there was never an argument about me playing on Sabbath. I just did."

All the while, Trevor's baseball career continued to flourish.

College Ball and Baptism
It was during his senior year of high school that Trevor was invited to a professional baseball prospect camp in Arizona. He was also nominated "All-City Captain" and earned just about "every award you could think of for baseball."

By graduation, though, Trevor wasn't looking at schools far away. "I'm kind of a mama's boy," Trevor, an only child, admits. Trevor's wish to stay close to home and his desire to be a starter during his first year led him to the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK), located about an hour and a half from Lincoln. Although UNK is only an NCAA Division II university,¹ Trevor had been promised immediate pitching time. He did, indeed, pitch during his freshman year at UNK, but an elbow injury benched him for the majority of the season. This setback would later turn into a career-blossoming blessing.

It was right about this time, during Trevor's sophomore year at UNK, that he began dating a young woman from Union College in Lincoln. This association, he admits, began in part at the promptings of his mother. During his relationship with this Adventist woman, however, things began to change for Trevor. He started going to church again and was baptized in May 1997. But his life didn't get easier. "Things were more difficult after that," he says.

Trevor was still playing baseball at UNK, and he was still pitching on Sabbaths. "I tried to convince myself that the Lord knew my heart," he says. "I felt like the Sabbath was a burden, like I had to stop everything I enjoyed to observe something I didn't understand. It felt like the Pharisees with all their rules: 'You can't do this, you can't do that . . . ' I thought, The Lord knows me. It doesn't matter."

So Trevor continued to play.

Although Trevor was dominating at UNK, playing at the Division II level didn't prompt exposure from major league teams. After four years at UNK and no major league offers, Trevor decided to join the Beatrice Bruins, a summer bat league team for premier college players.

While playing with the Bruins, Trevor pitched in the National Baseball Congress World Series game in Wichita, Kansas. While facing a bat league team from Oklahoma, Trevor pitched a no-hitter. The only other player to claim a no-hitter in this same game was pitching legend Tom Seaver.

During his season with the Bruins, a friend convinced Trevor to apply for a medical redshirt-an NCAA grant for an extra year of college eligibility. The NCAA granted Trevor his redshirt because of his freshman year elbow injury, and he was able to walk on to the University of Nebraska Lincoln's (UNL) team in the fall.

At UNL Trevor played in his hometown. And he played well, helping his team to be the first from UNL to win a Big 12 championship.² What had been a mediocre UNL baseball team suddenly sparked back to life and became one of the top 10 teams in the country. Trevor and his fellow pitching staff excelled with the lowest earned run average (ERA) in the nation.

Major league scouts raised their eyebrows.

Drafted
Trevor was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in June 2000 after his championship-winning season at UNL. On draft day Trevor's mother-who, along with her husband, had never missed a game-turned to her husband and said, "Our little son is playing in major league baseball! A little kid from Lincoln, Nebraska."

That summer Trevor played in the short season with the Phillies' single A team in Batavia, New York.³ "It's a long process to make it to the big leagues," says Trevor. "Each franchise has six levels called the player development leagues. Only 3 percent of the 1,500-1,600 college players drafted each year ever make it to the big leagues, and the majority who do are high draft picks. The average major league player spends three to four years playing in the minors [before called to the majors]."

But Trevor Bullock was certainly on his way.

After the short season was over, Trevor headed home to Lincoln. While he was home, he met Carissa Dunn.

"I loved the spotlight; I felt like I was on a pedestal. But [Carissa] knocked me off my pedestal."

Carissa was raised as a Methodist, but was not practicing at the time she and Trevor met. "She was the opposite of who I was and who I was becoming," says Trevor, himself on a steady spiritual journey after his baptism several years before.

But he wasn't perfect, either.

"I was really selfish," says Trevor. "But the more I saw her, the more I put myself away."

As his self-centeredness slowly disappeared, Trevor and Carissa grew close. After they had been dating for a little while, Trevor asked Carissa to go to church with him. She accepted, and Greg Nelson, then senior pastor at the College View Seventh-day Adventist Church, captured her attention. Her interest aroused, Carissa continued to attend church with Trevor.

Shortly before Trevor had to leave for spring training, they visited the NextAdventure Sabbath School, led by College View's associate pastor Shannon Minnick. At that time NextAdventure, a Sabbath School group geared for young adults in their 20s and 30s, was still in its beginning stages. Trevor and Carissa met with the group only twice before spring training called Trevor to Clearwater, Florida.

"Those five months went by fast," recalls Trevor. "Carissa helped me change, and she changed. Christ was the center of our relationship. I started to see that I needed to practice what I was helping her with."

Flip-flop Christianity
It was June 2001 when Trevor left for spring training with the Phillies' single A team, the Lakewood, New Jersey, Blue Claws. "It was a tough time apart. A few times I didn't think we were going to make it."

While Trevor was away, Carissa became very involved in the efforts of the NextAdventure Sabbath School group. At the time, Carissa was attending church and Sabbath School, but was still partying with her public college friends. She was struggling through a floundering relationship with Trevor and a roller-coaster lifestyle that flip-flopped between Christian and secular values. "It was terrible," she recalls.

As difficult as it was for Carissa while Trevor was away during the season, she feels his absence made her turn to God. "I didn't know what else to do," she says. She continued going to church and being involved in NextAdventure.

Carissa attended a retreat in Grand Island, Nebraska, with several women from the NextAdventure group. It was at this retreat, with these close friends, that Carissa made the decision to be baptized. "I got really close to the girls," Carissa says. "They opened my eyes to real Christian friendships."

Carissa, growing steadily in her relationship with Christ during Trevor's absence, now kept him going, both spiritually and emotionally. "I sent him a card every week for the entire six months he was gone," she says. "He was strong when I was weak, and he was weak when I was strong."

"While I was struggling with temptations, she continued to grow," Trevor recalls. "That showed me [her change] wasn't just for me." After a six-month separation the two were united again in Lincoln.

Locker Room Religion
Aside from relationship problems during his season with the Blue Claws, Trevor was also struggling with appeasing his deepened spiritual commitment with his budding baseball career. "Religion and baseball [together] are taboo. Religion was not allowed in the locker rooms. It's sad to see professionals claiming to be Christians, but to see their actions and find out they're really lukewarm. A lot of athletes have a hard time letting go of themselves."

In his first regular season with the Lakewood Blue Claws, Trevor made the all-star team. He was becoming a prospect in the Phillies organization and was labeled an "organizational pitcher," meaning he had a high chance of making it to the majors and of staying there for a long time. Everything was going right in his baseball career, but he was struggling with his spiritual life.
He had tried to convince himself that playing baseball on Sabbath was OK because the Lord knew his heart. It wasn't working. "The more I tried to convince myself, the more I realized I was doing it for myself," says Trevor. "The more I studied, the more I prayed, the more I saw that it was not about me, but about Him."

Trevor's struggle was quiet. "People didn't know I was struggling, because I kept my composure." This Trevor had learned during his many years of pitching-you can't let the batter see that you're scared.

A turning point in Trevor's journey came when he taught a session in his Bible study group. For several months Trevor and a few other players on his team met to study the Bible. The group began with two or three members and expanded to include about 10 players. They met every day, usually in hotel rooms since open religious activity was not encouraged.

Trevor was scheduled to present a lesson study during one of the group's meetings. His topic? The Sabbath. And he realized as he was presenting the study, trying to impress the other men about the importance of the Sabbath, that he wasn't "walking the walk."

"Here I was talking about the Sabbath, and these other guys are looking at me thinking, You're out here playin' with us every Sabbath, and yet it's supposed to be important?"

Trevor also struggled with the team's busy schedule-152 games in 160 days-and being away from his family, his friends, and his church. Nearly every day Trevor had to report to the field by 2:00 p.m., practice until 7:00, play a game until 11:00, return to the hotel, eat, and crash into bed by 2:00 a.m. And this didn't include the team's endless traveling.

"As an athlete, you appreciate rest," says Trevor. "When I was playing baseball, I could never find the Sabbath like I did at home. I started to enjoy the Sabbath because I was making a choice, no one was forcing me. But when I was on the road, I couldn't make that choice. [When you're home], you kinda take [the Sabbath] for granted. When it's taken away from you, and you can't be with the people you love, it really hits home."

Trevor's mind was made up.
"I realized that if I didn't do it then, I wouldn't ever do it. I had to let go of myself."

Out-of-the-Blue Claws Decision
Trevor Bullock, after training all winter for his third season in the minors, decided to walk away from professional baseball just one week before he was to report to spring training.

Carissa, now Trevor's fiancée, was stunned. "I had no clue," she recalls. "I knew he was struggling, but . . . I came home from work one night and he told me; he called the Phillies the next day. Never in a million years would I have thought he would do this."

"I was shocked when he told me," says Trevor's mom, Ardyce. "I was very thankful that he did not want to play ball on the Sabbath. And he came to the decision on his own; he was studying the Bible a lot. It was a firm decision; he never vacillated. I was very delighted."

But not everyone was thrilled, or even happy, with Trevor's decision. His father, Duaine, had spent years hoping Trevor would play in the majors, and Trevor's out-of-the-blue decision angered him.

"We didn't speak for a month," a still-saddened Trevor remembers. "Things have changed a lot since then, and it's been an emotional time. It's still a healing process."

"My husband is not a Seventh-day Adventist or a Christian," Ardyce says. "[He sees that] Trevor worked hard for 19 years playing ball, then he threw away a secure job and money, for what? He was angry with all of [our family] and really unhappy with Trevor."

"To my father, everything is money," explains Trevor. "He tells me, 'Trevor, go back a year, get the signing bonus, and quit.' But what does that prove? Do I put my relationship with God on hold for a year to get the money, and then be happy?"

Trevor's trouble with his father wasn't the only bump in the road after his decision to walk away from baseball. "I made the choice, and that's when temptations really hit."

Million-Dollar Testimony
Two days after he gave his resignation to the Phillies organization, Trevor received a call from the Phillies' general manager. The manager wanted to let Trevor know just what the young player was giving up and proceeded to tell Trevor about another pitcher, one whose footsteps Trevor would undoubtedly follow. The pitcher was moving up in the organization and had just been offered a $250,000 contract for a single season.

"I didn't know salvation came with a price," Trevor unwaveringly replied to the manager. "You're asking me to give up beliefs for the sake of baseball. I know what I'm giving up, and I know what I'm keeping."

Several days after this tempting phone call, Trevor was contacted by about a half dozen other professional baseball organizations. Each time he was able to give a brief testimony about the importance of the Sabbath, a close relationship with Christ, and time with family.

After a while the phone calls became so numerous that he had to change his cell phone number. Teams tried Trevor's home number, and his dad, still hoping someone could change Trevor's mind, "passed out the new number left and right."
Trevor saw a friend at the NextAdventure Sabbath School group shortly after his decision and shared his story with the friend.

"Praise the Lord!" the friend said, "'cause the devil's not done with you yet."
"I know," replied Trevor. "But neither is Christ."

Freedom to Choose
Life is harder for Trevor these days. "I'm clueless as to what I want to do," he says, "but I know He's gonna take care of that." Trevor is studying criminal justice and is excited about two events arriving in December: his graduation and his wedding.

"I love sharing my testimony," says Trevor. "And I don't mean for me. It's for one person to realize that there are more important things in life than cars and big houses; there is Something more concrete.

"It's amazing to see what I've missed in the past 10 years of my life," Trevor reminisces. "My head was so big, I'm surprised I didn't fall over. I don't know how I could walk. But I want people to know that I'm humble now, and that I don't take credit for the things that have happened in my life. I take credit for the choice I made. A true Christian knows that they can't save themselves, that they must just live each day for Him."

But what if some major league team begged Trevor to play and promised that he would have every Sabbath free-guaranteed? What would Trevor do?
"I would have to say no," he replies. "It's about my relationship with God, my family, and my friends. With that lifestyle, I couldn't have a Christian relationship with my family. . . . I could never leave Carissa's side again.
"It's all about freedom-I can choose. Once I let go of the baseball issue, the definition of choice came. I love that freedom!"

"But is it that easy to walk away from professional baseball when it's been your lifelong dream? Any regrets, Trevor?"

"No. Well, at first I regretted that I didn't start this earlier. But then I look at the journey; it has made me stronger and made me trust Him more. I am healthy, happy, and I'm getting married," a glowing Trevor replies.

Ric Spaulding, director of Union College's Larson Lifestyle Center, has been Trevor's neighbor for 13 years. Ric, who is also Trevor's distant cousin, was so impressed with Trevor's testimony that he asked him to share it with a group of academy basketball players shortly after his decision. "Very few of us give up millions of dollars to keep the Sabbath," says Ric. "I don't think any of us can comprehend the decision he's made."

But then again, Trevor Bullock is no ordinary baseball player.

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¹ NCAA stands for the National Collegiate Athletic Association. There are several divisions in the NCAA. Division I is the highest ranking, and the division that receives the most attention from the media and professional athletic associations.
² The Big 12 is one of the nation's most competitive college sports conferences within the NCAA framework. Dedicated to achieving the highest goals in the integration of academic and athletic endeavors, Baylor, Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Okahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech combined forces on February 25, 1994, and forged the NCAA Division I Big 12 Conference
³ Each major league organization has single A, double A, and triple A minor league teams. Most players begin their professional careers on single A teams, hoping to work their way up through double A, triple A, and finally to the majors. At each level, managers and coaching staff continually evaluate players' performance, determining if and when the players should be promoted to the next level.

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Amanda Sauder is a junior journalism and marketing major at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska. She wrote this piece while a summer intern at the Adventist Review.