The night before pitching against Stephen Strasburg and the Washington Nationals last weekend, Tim Hudson had multiple things on his mind. Fifty of them, in fact.
At the Braves’ team hotel, resting for his Saturday start, Hudson opened his laptop and took a 50-question multiple-choice test for his government-and-politics class.
Fifteen years in the majors and 11 as a father have taught Hudson a few things about multi-tasking and setting priorities. At age 37, he has a new one — finishing his degree at Auburn.
Through the convenience of online classes, Hudson could work toward his degree while he chased 200 career wins. Hudson reached 199 on April 13 by acing the Nationals and their young star, giving up only one run in seven innings. And he got a B on that test.
About the only thing Hudson couldn’t pull off last weekend was being in two places at once. He missed his son Kade’s eighth birthday Saturday at home in Auburn. But he’s busy setting an example for what Kade can start to shoot for around his 18th birthday — a college degree.
Hudson was 40 hours shy of graduating from Auburn in the spring of 1997 when Oakland drafted him in the sixth round.
“It’s something to chip away at,” Hudson said. “I’m excited about it. I’m a long ways from getting it, but at least the ball is rolling now. I always talked about it, and I always thought about it. Now it’s actually happening.”
Hudson can take about half of the courses he needs online, some of which are offered by other schools, such as Western Oklahoma State. He got a kick out of telling Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons that he’s taking his government class at the junior college Simmons attended.
Hudson has had fun with this, even when he got a few snickers from teammates when he brought a textbook into the Braves clubhouse during spring training.
“It’s just something I want to do,” said Hudson, who pointed out he might want to get into coaching one day. “My life after being a player, you never know when I might would need it. I could use it one day.”
He is in the option year of a four-year, $36 million contract extension with the Braves. He would like to keep pitching beyond that, but he already has been paid in the neighborhood of $100 million. He doesn’t need a degree. That’s also part of why he wants it.
“That’s what I think holds the most weight is the fact that I don’t really have to get it,” Hudson said. “But I’m choosing to get it.”
Hudson will have to take the last five courses toward his major on Auburn’s campus. He’s looking forward to that, too, even if it means he has to wait until his baseball career ends so his schedule will allow it. He and his wife, Kim, whom he met when they were students at Auburn, built a home in Auburn and moved back in 2010. They also have a house in Peachtree City, but Kim and their three children stay in Auburn during the school year.
Hudson has stayed involved with Auburn and its athletic programs. A degree, he figures, will give him more credibility with that too.
For now, there are college students out there who probably don’t realize that the “Timothy Hudson” who logged on to write about his political views on an online forum for Western Oklahoma State was the ace of the Braves’ pitching staff.
“They don’t know,” he said, laughing. “They probably read my forum like ‘That guy is a jerk.’ It’s funny now my views on politics and life in general are so different than when I was in college.”
Getting back into a study mode has taken some getting used to again, Hudson said. And like he did in college, he leans on his wife, an A student and law-school graduate.
Hudson woke up in Auburn after pitching against the Phillies on Opening Day to realize he left his book at their house in Peachtree City. Kim printed three chapters from his reading assignment and left them on the kitchen counter.
“Now I feel like I really have four kids in school,” said Kim Hudson, who recently made partner in the Auburn law firm Davis, Bingham and Hudson.
She jokes as much as her husband does, but she also takes great pride in what he’s doing. She was there trying to help the spring of his senior year when baseball took precedence over academics as the Tigers advanced to the College World Series.
“The only class she was my tutor in I failed,” Hudson said. “She isn’t a very good tutor.”
Hudson said he took five incompletes his final semester at Auburn. That put him behind, along with the fact that many of his classes from Chattahoochee Valley Community College hadn’t transferred to Auburn when he first got there as a junior.
Kim went with him when he met with academic advisors this winter to devise a plan to change his major from health promotion, which doesn’t exist anymore, to interdisciplinary studies. He plans to concentrate on political science, philanthropy and psychology. For a political-news junkie who has his own charitable foundation, and in his day job tries to get into hitters’ heads, it’s a good combination.
“It’s been a long time since he’s read anything other than football scouting reports for fantasy football,” Kim said, laughing. “But I think he’ll get into it. I think he’ll take ownership of it. He doesn’t want to do poorly, so he’ll be motivated.”
Hudson was admittedly nervous for the first test — “I haven’t had a test in 15 years,” he said — but he still wasn’t happy when he got back a C. Kim said she tried to encourage him by saying that his grades aren’t what mattered, just that he finished.
“He looked me straight in the face and said ‘Well you wouldn’t tell that to our kids,’” Kim Hudson said.
Hudson said he might have been happy with a passing grade in his younger days. But he’s got a different mindset now. Maybe a little of that competitive nature on the mound is making it into his studies.
“My bar is a little higher now,” said Hudson, who made an A on his final test Thursday and a B in the class.
