WASHINGTON — Marvin Hudson is, by most accounts, not a bad umpire. He’s been in the league since 1998, and has been largely forgettable, which is one of the qualities an umpire should strive for.
He has been these things to most every team. Most every team except, that is, for the Washington Nationals.
Hudson was born in Marietta, Ga., just outside of Atlanta. This is interesting only because since 2012, when the Nats flipped the switch from perennial doormats to contenders and forged their rivalry with the Braves, Hudson has been a bizarre thorn in their side.
Consider this: Hudson has ejected just eight players or managers since September of 2012, a number that is quite reasonable and fewer than a good number of his peers. But of those eight, six have been Washington Nationals. Including that Atlanta series in late 2012, Hudson has only been in uniform for 27 Nationals games (for what it’s worth, nine of those have been Nats-Braves games, in which Washington has gone 2-7).
On September 15, 2012, the Nats held a 4-2 lead in Atlanta going to the bottom of the 6th, 12 outs away from a big win that would have stretched the division lead to 7.5 games with 17 to play. Martin Prado hit a ball back to Edwin Jackson, who threw to Adam LaRoche at first, with LaRoche’s foot still on the bag before Prado’s arrival. Prado was incorrectly called safe by Hudson, who was manning first base that day. Nationals manager Davey Johnson came out of the dugout to argue, and was ejected. The Braves came back to win, 5-4, and would complete the series sweep the next day.
On August 17, 2013, Hudson was behind the plate when Stephen Strasburg threw consecutive pitches behind Andrelton Simmons in the bottom of the second inning after hitting Justin Upton in the first. Both Strasburg and Johnson were tossed immediately. Later in that same game, Scott Hairston — who had not been ejected from a game since 2010 — was tossed for arguing what appeared to be a correct strike three call. The Braves came back in the ninth to force extra innings, but Washington won a crazy game, 8-7 in 15 frames.
The next day, on August 18, Bryce Harper batted in the top of the ninth against Craig Kimbrel with a runner at first, two out, and the Nats trailing 2-1. Harper checked his swing, clearly not going around, on a 1-2 pitch, but an appeal was made to Hudson, who was then manning third base. Hudson rang Harper up to end the game, and the two shared some words afterward.
On Wednesday night, Harper took a visibly low pitch from Adam Warren to start an at-bat in the bottom of the third, which was called a strike by Hudson, behind the plate. Harper jawed for a short while, as did manager Matt Williams from the dugout. Harper stepped back into the box for the next pitch, at which point Hudson stood up from behind the plate to bark at Williams, causing Harper to back out. By the time Hudson made his way back to his position, mask still off, Harper was standing on the edge of the batter’s circle. Hudson then ejected Harper — and, subsequently, Williams — for ostensibly not getting back to the box in time.
This is, as ESPN baseball writer Keith Law has coined it, an #UmpShow. But it’s really more than that. It’s an ump tragedy, one that has now entered its fourth, moronic, sophomoric act.
Sure, Harper’s found a way to get himself tossed a few times in his career, but there was absolutely no reason for this ejection, and the club is rightly protesting it. The real question is what in the world is going on with the man in charge of keeping the peace and enforcing the actual rules of the game, who has pretty clearly failed to do so in three of the four aforementioned scenarios, then doubled down on his mistakes by abusing his power?
Here’s to hoping, for the Nationals’ sake, that Hudson isn’t assigned to many more of their games this season.
