Although I am pulling for the Royals to win the World Series, I am proud of Tim Hudson. He makes his first World Series start tonight. He has the most career victories of any active pitcher in MLB and, until this season, had 15 consecutive winning seasons. I hope Hudson wins tonight, then the Royals take the series.
BY Mark Inabinett
24 October 2014
Tim Hudson expects to be calm when he takes the ball on Friday night for the San Francisco Giants in Game 3 of the World Series against the Kansas City Royals. But he was anything but calm when the Giants secured their World Series spot, sending Hudson to the Fall Classic for the first time after 16 Major League seasons.
"I was beside myself," Hudson said of his feelings when San Francisco eliminated the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series. "I had emotions going through my body that I never knew could happen."
The former Auburn star wasn't the only one.
"I've never seen my wife cry so hard in her life," Hudson said of his wife, Kim. "It was awesome. A lot of tears of joy for me and her."
The Giants and the Royals meet with the best-of-seven series tied 1-1. Game 3 starts at 7 p.m. CDT Friday on FOX.
"I feel like things will just fall into place when I get out there,'' Hudson said. "I can't wait. There won't be a person on the field more ready to get the game going than me, I can tell you that."
At 39, Hudson will become the third-oldest pitcher to make his first World Series start. He had played on six teams eliminated in their first round of the baseball playoffs before advancing through the wild-card game, the Division Series and the NLCS with the Giants this season. No player has ever gone more than six postseasons from the start of his career without winning at least one playoff series.
"Obviously, this is something I've never had to deal with at this point in my career," Hudson said at a press conference on Thursday. "It's something that I've always looked forward to. I've always hoped and dreamed that this opportunity would happen for me, and here I am on the eve of, obviously, the biggest game I've ever pitched. ...
"Early on, it wasn't quite as frustrating because I thought that I'd be there every year. I thought I'd have an opportunity every year to get to the playoffs and have a chance to win. But as you start playing with some teams and you have that playoff drought of a few years in a row, you start realizing how hard it is to get here every year and how hard it is to compete against a lot of teams in baseball. So that's when it started becoming a little bit more, a little frustrated. One day, you see this window starting to gradually shrink throughout your career. It was 16 years without getting to the World Series. Was a long time. I played with a lot of guys throughout my career that had not only gotten to the World Series but have won rings, and I'm really happy for those guys, but at the same time I'm really jealous."
Hudson's 2013 season with the Atlanta Braves ended early when he broke his right ankle in July covering first base. He signed a two-year contract with the Giants during the offseason, and he finished as the runner-up to the Miami Marlins' Casey McGehee for The Sporting News National League Comeback Player of the Year Award.
Hudson went to the All-Star Game for the fourth time in his career, but a sore hip bothered him in the second half of the season. The Majors' active leader with 214 career pitching victories, Hudson finished the 2014 season at 9-13 with a 3.57 earned-run average. It broke a streak of 15 consecutive seasons with a winning record, tied with Pedro Martinez and Cy Young for the second-longest in history behind Grover Cleveland Alexander's 19 in a row.
Hudson bounced back from his second-half slump in the postseason. He pitched 14 innings in two extra-inning victories by the Giants, striking out 13 without walking a batter.
As happy as Hudson is to reach the World Series for the first time, his teammates have seemed just as glad to have helped him get there.
"He's a big key to our identity, especially for a guy who just came in this year," two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum said. "It just kind of fell into place. He quickly picked up on who we were as the Giants. He fit in really well here. He's a guy who's going to tell you what's on his mind. He's going to give it to you real, and that's what you need in a clubhouse."
Hudson led Glenwood School in Phenix City to the AISA baseball title in 1993, Chattahoochee Valley to the AJCCC Division II championship in 1994 and Auburn to the College World Series in 1997. At Auburn, he became the first player to be selected All-SEC at two positions in same season as a pitcher and an outfielder. Hudson's 95 RBIs in 1997 still rank second on Auburn's single-season list, and he had a 20-5 pitching mark in two seasons on the Plains.
In addition to his drive to get to the World Series this season, Hudson has been trying to turn teammate Jake Peavy from an Alabama fan into an Auburn supporter. Peavy had planned to attend Auburn after earning the state's Class 4A Player of the Year Award at St. Paul's in 1999. Instead, he turned pro in the San Diego Padres organization.
"I'm Auburn, through and through," Hudson told espn.com. "Jake's an Alabama fan, but he's not the typical fan who bleeds (crimson). I'm trying to convert him. He signed with Auburn, so the door is cracked."
Peavy is about six years younger than Hudson.
"When I was getting ready to go to college, Timmy Hudson was a huge part of me wanting to go to Auburn," Peavy said. "He was a guy I looked up to and wanted to be like. I was even a little jealous when he got to pitch in Atlanta, so close to our home. It's funny to think that after all those years, we have a chance to share this and we're locker mates now. It's been a really cool friendship."
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