PORT ST. LUCIE PEOPLE
The LITTLE LEAGUE GUY
Dewey Hudman has been umpiring Little League games on the Treasure Coast since 1975. Outside of his day job as an engineer, he has donated thousands
BY GREG GARDNER
For 42 years Dewey Hudman has been the steady
voice of reason behind home plate as umpire for
more than 1,700 Little League games in Port St. Lucie.
It is an amazing legacy since Hudman never played
baseball growing up on an Alabama farm or in any game
after that. When he married his wife, Lil, in 1976, she had two
sons, 5 and 7, from a previous marriage. He would raise them
as his own along with a son the couple had together.
Hudman first became involved in baseball when he and a
neighbor, who also had two sons, went to sign the boys up
for minor Little League. When asked, the two fathers agreed
to help coach their sons teams.
“I had never played a baseball game in my life, but I
studied the rule book and I would get coaching tips from any
source I could,” he said. His best tip for T-ball coaches is to
help kids learn how to make a level swing.
Only coaching for three years, Hudman by then had been
bitten by the umpiring bug. Coaches are asked to umpire a
game either before or after their team has played and that is
how he got his start behind the plate.
GREG GARDNER
“I got into coaching and umpiring at the same time,” he said.
Even though his children have been out of the house for
years, Hudman still donates hundreds of hours a year as the
administrator for District 17, overseeing 13 Little Leagues with
2,400 players from Sebastian to Hobe Sound. He also is the
treasurer for the Florida District Administrators Association.
“My husband eats, drinks and sleeps Little League,”
Lil said.
Having worked behind the plate for all levels of Little
League, including girls softball, Hudman is happy to pass
down knowledge to the new umpires who receive training
from the 79-year-old organization.
“Umpiring has taught me the best customer-service skills
I could ever get and I have had a lot of training with different
companies,” he said. “You develop listening skills. When
people are yelling at you, you try and get their point of view.
Umpiring requires common sense.”
One of the most difficult challenges of umpiring can be
dealing with coaches, according to Hudman.
“You have to know how to handle their comments and not
>>
Port St. Lucie Magazine 43
of hours of his time in various capacities.