Between Starts with Tim Hudson

Tim Hudson stands before 16 members of the media in front of his locker in the Braves' clubhouse on Aug. 17. He has just won his ninth game of the season, shutting down the Dodgers in a 10-2 victory. He threw 104 pitches, commanding the spotlight for eight innings. Now he has five days before he takes center stage again.

After Hudson answers questions about that night's win for about 15 minutes, he showers and eats dinner in the clubhouse. "I'm so amped up after a game, I don't really have an appetite for a while," he says. "It takes me a while to calm down and go to sleep." Hudson leaves the clubhouse around midnight for his 20-minute drive to his townhouse in the Buckhead section of downtown Atlanta.

So how does a starting pitcher fill his days between starts? How does the body rest, recover and prepare for the next outing? What does a player do when he is not playing in 80 percent of his team's games?

Day One - Recovery and a charity event
(Game time, 7:05 p.m. Dodgers vs. Braves)
12:30 p.m. Hudson sleeps in, then arrives at the AFLAC Cancer Center at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta for a 90-minute appearance on a local radio event that raises money for cancer research. Hudson appears with his wife, Kim, and is promoting his first celebrity golf tournament as a member of the Braves, which is to take place in March. During the broadcast, radio personality Neil Boorz says at one point "the hardest thing to do in professional sports is to hit a baseball," to which Kim quickly replies, "Just ask Tim." Hudson is hitting .136 in his first season in the National League.

1:01 p.m. Tim, Kim and Boorz walk down the hall during a break to meet a 14-year old patient who has been in and out of the hospital with a serious illness. Tim chats with the boy and his mother, giving him encouragement and wishing him well. The Hudsons have three young children and have decided the AFLAC Cancer Center will be the focus of their charitable efforts in Atlanta.

1:56 p.m There have been seven pledges of $10,000 for Hudson's golf tournament, leaving him almost halfway to his goal of 15 foursomes by March. Tim and Kim meet more hospital administrators who thank them for their time and efforts, and then head out to the parking lot. He will run some errands with Kim, then head to Turner Field mid-afternoon.

5:15 p.m. Hudson takes the field with the rest of the Braves at the start of batting practice. He long-tosses in the outfield for about four minutes to loosen his shoulder, then stands and shags flies in right field. There is no weight work, conditioning or true throwing on the day after his start. He says some day-afters are better than others. "It depends what time of the year it is and how many innings I've logged and how good the anti-inflammatories are working," he says. "My arm and shoulder are stiff sometimes. My drive leg is a little stiff."

10:20 p.m. Brayan Pena makes the final out and the Braves fall 7-4. Hudson dresses at his locker while the media interviews other players. He text-messages for a few minutes, then leaves the building at 10:50 p.m. to head home.

Day Two - A luncheon, then back to work
(Game time, 7:05 p.m. Padres vs. Braves)
11:15 a.m. Hudson is introduced along with his teammates and coaching staff to a crowd of Braves supporters in the 755 Club at Turner Field. The Braves are having their annual Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony luncheon, where the players meet with sponsors and season-ticket holders. Today, scout Paul Snyder and infielder Herman Long will be inducted into the Braves Hall of Fame. Hudson sits with nine executives from Publix, one of the Braves' main sponsors, and shares lunch with them. The conversation is mainly on family, with a few baseball questions mixed in. The 1995 World Series champion Braves are honored as well, and Hudson hears Smoltz, Chipper Jones, David Justice and Bobby Cox discuss the franchise's only World Championship in Atlanta. "There is envy there," he says of not having won a World Series yet. "You want to experience that happiness with your team. Nobody in this game is ever above (hearing from past champions)."

2:05 p.m. The Hall of Fame luncheon breaks up, and Hudson heads down to the clubhouse with the rest of his teammates. This is his first of two throwing days in preparation for his next start. Highly regarded pitching coach Leo Mazzone has always insisted his starters throw twice between starts, unlike some of his contemporaries. "You've got to throw twice," Mazzone says. "Always."

Hudson's shoulder and leg generally feel better than on Day One, though that is not always the case. Regardless, Day Two is a workday in the bullpen and weight room, no matter what aches may linger.

4:30 p.m. Hudson has spent the last half hour strolling about the clubhouse, talking to his teammates and doing a lone interview. Starting pitchers do not often get approached by the media between starts, but Hudson is an accessible player who is almost always in the clubhouse when it is open to the media. A team meeting to scout the Padres, the Braves' opponent for the next three days, is about to begin, though it has little relevance to Hudson, whose next start is not until Monday against the Cubs.

5:07 p.m. Hudson heads down to the bullpen with pitching coach Leo Mazzone and rehabbing catcher Johnny Estrada, who is trying to work his way off the disabled list. After four minutes of stretching, Hudson does some light tossing with Estrada for about four minutes before Estrada grabs his mask and Hudson goes to the rubber. Hudson throws "at about 70-75 percent" according to Mazzone, no higher than 84 miles per hour max. "You just want to make sure you are not picking up any bad habits," Hudson says.

5:23 p.m. After two sharp strikes, Hudson calls it a night. He's thrown 37 pitches in all, bouncing some splitters that Mazzone was happy with. "You keep the ball down, you can't get hurt," Hudson says. He retreats to the clubhouse to ice his right (drive) leg and have a pre-game snack.

8:40 p.m. The Braves lead 3-2 at the end of three innings and Hudson goes to the Braves' weight room that is adjacent to the clubhouse. He meets strength coach Frank Fultz for his lower body workout. Hudson warms up on the bike, then watches good friend Mike Hampton surrender four runs and get removed from the game in a rough fourth inning. Hudson and rehabbing catcher Eddie Perez watch a three-run homer sail into the seats, let out a quick expletive, and get back to their workouts.

"We can't do anything right," Fultz says.

"The optimist of the league," Hudson says with a smile of Fultz.

Hudson starts with leg curls, then moves to a leg press, lower back exercises and then hamstring curls.
"With all of our pitchers, we establish a workout routine in spring training and we keep with it the entire year," Fultz says. "As long as they are not injured, we do not alter the program. We do not back off late in the year or anything like that. We just try to keep the workout consistent, and he's really good with it. He is very conscientious about his work."

Hudson is hardly an imposing physical specimen at 6'1", 170 pounds, but he still finds a way to get his ball into the low- to mid-90s.

"He's blessed to be able to throw the ball as hard as he does," Fultz says. "He's really blessed."

Fultz notes the Phillies are losing, meaning the Braves' 4.5-game lead is safe for the moment. The workout concludes at 9:14 p.m. in the top of the fifth. Hudson puts his uniform back on, heads back to the dugout and watches the rest of a 12-7 Braves loss. He leaves Turner Field at 11:10 p.m., 12 hours after he arrived.

Day Three - A workout and a wedding
(Game time, 1:15 p.m. Padres vs. Braves)
10:30 a.m. Hudson jokes with fellow starter Horacio Ramirez about the merits of SEC baseball (Hudson went to Auburn) vs. West Coast baseball (Ramirez being a native Californian). Hudson jokes that Cubs ace Mark Prior transferred from Vanderbilt to USC after one year "probably because he couldn't handle the SEC." Ramirez notes Hudson fared well out in Oakland, to which Hudson replies, "because it's easy out there." Steve Lyons from Fox comes over to check in with Hudson before the afternoon broadcast.

11:25 a.m. Hudson pops out of the dugout and signs autographs for five minutes before heading to the bullpen for his second between-starts workout. This time he throws to veteran bullpen coach Bobby Dews, who has been with the Braves since 1975. At 11:36 he starts his true pitches and ends up throwing 46 in all, more than a normal bullpen session. Hudson says he felt "pretty good" and was again working on his split-fingered fastball. He bounces a few, which again pleases Mazzone. "With the way he pitches, I want him to bounce some," Mazzone says. "They'll swing and miss at those."

12:08 p.m. Hudson puts on his game day white uniform for a photo shoot for a national magazine with Andruw Jones. When the two stars stand for a back-to-back pose, Hudson gets on his toes to try to look taller than the slugging outfielder. Hudson then tosses the ball he is holding to a young fan wearing a Hudson jersey and retreats out of the 95-degree heat to the clubhouse.

2:18 p.m. San Diego leads 1-0 in the top of the fourth when Hudson heads to the weight room. As he warms up, Hudson asks Fultz and Hampton, who is also doing his weight work, for the best directions on how to miss game traffic on his way to Auburn, Ala. Hudson's four-year old daughter is in a 6 p.m. wedding, and he is leaving straight from the park. While the game is moving along quickly, Hudson says, "I'm just hoping to make the reception."

2:24 p.m. Hudson starts his upper body workout, doing two sets of bench press, pull-downs, lateral raises and curls. He then stretches before finishing up with triceps pull-downs and reverse pull-downs. He wraps up the workout in the top of the sixth inning with the Braves still trailing 1-0. "Are we going to lose today?" Hudson asks Fultz. "No. Today we're going to win," Fultz replies. "Wow," says Hudson. "You never think we're going to win."

5:05 p.m. Adam LaRoche grounds to first to end the 13-inning affair. The Padres scored five runs in the top of the 13th off Joey Devine, who was making his major league debut. Hudson dresses quickly and heads off toward Auburn to join his wife and three children. The family will spend the night at the house Hudson gave to his parents in Auburn.

Day Four - Packing, Kangaroo Court and charting
(Game time, 8:05 p.m. Padres vs. Braves)
11:15 a.m. Hudson says goodbye to his four-month old son Kade at his parents' house, then drives back to his house in Atlanta. He and Kim stop at Wendy's on the way back to the house with the remaining two children.

1:30 p.m Tim goes upstairs with Kennedie and Tess to finish packing for his upcoming road trip to Chicago and Milwaukee. They all come downstairs, and Kennedie starts playing with a cash register, pretending to be a ticket-taker at Turner Field. "Enjoy the game," she says after scanning a ticket.

1:50 p.m Tim breaks out a DVD of a recent show on Spike TV that recorded a prank he pulled on teammate Eddie Perez earlier in the season. Hudson snuck into Perez's hotel room and hid in the closet with a Scary Movie screaming ghost costume on, complete with white mask and black robe. Perez thought he was the subject of a Day in the Life of a Ballplayer segment for Maximum MLB. When Perez showed up in his room, television cameraman in tow, the prank played out perfectly as Hudson leapt out of the closet and scared the daylights out of Perez. Hudson breaks into laughter once again at the viewing, saying Perez ended up switching rooms because he was so shaken by the gag.

4:15 pm Hudson takes his place in front of his locker as the Treasurer of the Braves Kangaroo Court, which is in session before tonight's Sunday Night ESPN game against the Padres. The Braves have Kangaroo Court three to four times a year for various violations of baseball etiquette. The players-only session, with John Smoltz as judge and various players serving as jurors, lasts for 45 minutes. Hudson's job is to record the verdicts and collect the fines. Hudson wonders beforehand if having a photographer in the weight room during a workout will earn him a fine. He is spared for that transgression, but "there was a lot of other stuff," he says.

5:11 p.m The clubhouse opens to a restless media, who speculate the Braves are having a team meeting to discuss their three-game losing streak. Hudson is still finishing his paperwork from the court, going over some of the fines with Ryan Langerhans, Rafael Furcal, Pete Orr and Mike Hampton. After a few minutes, Hudson gets up and announces, 'Fines are posted, if you want to see them,' as he walks to the players lounge.
"The media was probably like, 'they're having a team meeting about how bad they are playing,'" Hudson correctly surmises.

5:35 p.m. After giving two interviews to reporters, Hudson places a quick call on his cell phone before heading out to take batting practice.

5:45 p.m. Hudson stands with a bat in his hand for the first time since his start against the Dodgers. He is working with Smoltz and Kelly Johnson on bunting mechanics. Hudson takes 10 minutes of BP in the first group with Smoltz, John Thomson and Perez, hitting two homers in 19 swings and laying down a handful of successful bunts.

6 p.m. Hudson does some long-tossing with Estrada for about three minutes, then shags flies in the outfield, including one from rookie sensation Jeff Francoeur.

6:30 p.m BP wraps up, and Hudson heads back to the clubhouse. Chapel begins in 15 minutes in the auxiliary clubhouse.

8:09 p.m. Hudson charts the first of 133 pitches in the players lounge of the clubhouse, seated on a couch watching the ESPN broadcast on a big screen Hi-Def television. Hudson will chart every Braves pitch of the night, recording location and type of pitch during the Braves' 6-2 win. The information is mainly for Mazzone. Hudson doesn't get nervous during the game as a fan might. "I really just try to stay awake," he says. His game jersey stays neatly hung in his locker all night and he never makes it to the dugout once the game begins.

11:30 p.m The team bus departs for the airport, bound for Chicago. The plane will land around 1:15 a.m., and the players will eventually settle in their rooms around 2:30 a.m.

Day Five - Back in the spotlight, and a complete game
(Game time, 7:05 p.m. Braves vs. Cubs)
10:30 a.m. Hudson awakens in the Westin on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. He orders breakfast, then hangs around his hotel room. It may appear like any other day, but Hudson knows better. "I try to stay the same, but you know yourself better than anybody," he says. "I'm anxious to get out there. I'm ready to get in the game. There is a lot of waiting. I just wish 7 o'clock would get here."

2:05 p.m. After walking around the city a bit and going to a restaurant for lunch with Hampton, Hudson takes a cab to Wrigley Field, a place he has never pitched. He will face the Cubs' Carlos Zambrano on a game televised by ESPN. The Cubs have been scuffling, but Zambrano has given up just three earned runs in his four August starts to date.

4:20 p.m. Dugout coach Pat Corrales hands Hudson the Cubs lineup card. He checks it out at his locker, then walks over to a laptop stationed in the middle of the Braves clubhouse. He goes to MLB.com to look up a specific player from the lineup. This will be the first scouting Hudson has done in preparation for his start.

"We provide a base for them to work off of, and then a lot of it depends on the feel of the starting pitcher and how he feels that particular day with particular pitches," Mazzone says of his scouting advice. "Find out what you've got when you get out there and work off it. You can have all the information you want, but if you can't put a fastball where you want it, it won't do you any good."


Video coordinator Rob Smith gives Hudson a portable DVD player and a disk with the last 15 or so Cubs at-bats. He sits in front of his locker and watches the DVD for what pitches the Cubs are handling.

5:15 p.m Hudson chats with ESPN's Rick Sutcliffe and Hampton as the Braves get ready to take BP. Normally Hudson does not take BP on the day he pitches, but he says, "I thought it would be cool to take it at Wrigley Field. You know, drop some bombs." Hudson hits one ball into the famed bleachers during his 10-minute session.

6:40 p.m. Mazzone, Estrada and Hudson make the short walk from the visiting dugout to the bullpen along the right field line at Wrigley. Hudson does some light running in the outfield, then takes the rubber at 6:47 p.m. He warms up until the Cubs take the field at 7:04 p.m. with a brief rest during the national anthem. He hands the ball to a young fan in the stands on his way back to the dugout and gets ready to pitch in front of 38,767 fans and a national television audience.

9:26 p.m Hudson throws his 119th and final pitch to Michael Barrett, who grounds to second base to end the game. The Braves have won 4-2 on the strength of a ninth-inning home run by Chipper Jones, and Hudson records his first complete game as a Brave. Hudson accepts congratulations on the Wrigley Field infield from his teammates after one of his best games of the season.

9:42 p.m. Hudson meets a crowd of media after knocking off a plate of pasta in a crowded Braves clubhouse. His shoulder, elbow and ribs are wrapped in ice as he answers questions about the win. "I had a good split from the start," he says. "That is what I'm really excited about. I've got that pitch back for me that is able to keep the lefties from sitting on a pitch." The question-and-answer session lasts about eight minutes, then he retreats to the training room. Overhead, the Cubs postgame show announces, "Tim Hudson was a stud," as they show highlights. Manager Bobby Cox tells reporters Hudson "had his 'A' game. This one was special. He was really dealing tonight."

10:05 p.m. Hudson checks his messages on his cell phone after finishing his shower and dressing. A phone call to Kim awaits to discuss tonight's performance.
Four long days of preparation have resulted in a strong performance for Hudson and his first-place team. Tomorrow, it starts all over again.