Special to WJW

Before coming to Washington this season, new Nationals pitcher Jason Marquis played in four different cities over his 10-year career. And in Atlanta, St. Louis, Chicago and Denver, he appreciated how the Jewish community has "taken me in and tried to make me feel comfortable and welcome."

"They've invited me to synagogue to talk, invited me to synagogue on the High Holidays," even invited him to their houses for dinner on Jewish holidays, recalls Marquis. And the first Jewish National says he's looking forward to getting to know the D.C.-area Jewish community as well.

"I don't shy away from that," Marquis said in an interview Sunday at the Nationals' annual NatsFest for fans. "I have such a demanding schedule during the season, but whenever I get a free moment where I'm able to do something, I try to do it."

Brooklyn, N.Y., native Marquis, who signed a two-year, $15 million contract with the Nats this off season, comes from a family of Conservative Jews.

"Judaism was stressed in my household growing up" in Staten Island, N.Y., said Marquis, noting that his mother's parents were Holocaust survivors.

A top pitcher in Little League at the time, Marquis recalls that his bar mitzvah party had a baseball theme, and "I remember studying hard and practicing hard trying to learn the words to the Torah."

And he said that Judaism has "played an important part in what I am today."

"It all goes back to morals and ethics ‹ to see what the past leaders of Judaism went through and what you read in the Torah, the values they brought and how they got to where they were," the 31-year-old right-hander said.

Also among the ways Judaism has influenced his life, said Marquis, is the discipline he said he learned in balancing school, Hebrew school and playing sports.

Unlike the most famous Jewish pitcher in history, Sandy Kourfax, Marquis said that he does not skip games on the High Holidays, but instead tries to balance both playing and observing Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

"I feel like being part of a team ‹ all working to accomplish the same goal ‹ it would be a little selfish if it came my turn in the rotation to pitch" and he didn't take the mound, he said.

It would be "letting 24 other players down," he said. "I don't want to take away from what I've worked so hard and the team worked so hard to accomplish."

"I have pitched on Yom Kippur before, but I've observed the holidays in other ways, fasted, gone to temple," he said, recalling times that he's been on the road and gotten together with other Jewish members of the team's staff ‹ the trainer, or some members of the PR office ‹ to attend a local shul.

"There's an even balance. I try to accommodate every part of my life that's important in my life," Marquis said, naming family, baseball and Judaism as three of those important pillars.

Marquis has three children ‹ ages 5, 3 and 4 months ‹ with his wife, Debbie, and said the couple will be raising them to learn both about his Judaism and his wife's Catholic faith.

"I don't want to take away from what she is as a person and what she was taught growing up," he said. "We're teaching the kids both sides, not leaving any stone unturned, and let them know how I got to where I was and how my parents and grandparents raised me."

Marquis hasn't figured out where he and his family will be living in the D.C. area just yet, but said he's very excited about coming to a team that, after going through a rough few years, is now demonstrating with its free-agent signings that it wants to improve in the standings in 2010.

"Whether it's as a number one starter, a number five starter ‹ whatever it may be, I'm here to win and that's the ultimate goal," he said. "It looks like a great town, great fans, great people, and I'm excited to be a part of the community."