PORT ST. LUCIE PEOPLE
DEWEY HUDMAN
Dewey and Lil Hudman made a deal early on in their marriage. He could
do his Little League, but he would have to watch the boys while she had
her night out bowling. The arrangement still works 42 years later.
ery district administrative position, Hudman has worked for
youth baseball in Port St. Lucie almost from its beginning and
long after his sons grew up, left home and started families.
Two of his sons went on to coach and umpire.
“I have cooked for the concessions and whatever you want
me to do, I will do it,” he said.
“I do it because I like it, not for the recognition,” Hudman
said. “It is fun when you go to the park and people say, ‘You
used to umpire my games.’ And then you see their kids are
now playing baseball.”
Although he has been to the World Series only once in Detroit
at the end of 1990, Hudman and his wife have traveled 20
times to Williamsport, Pa., for the Little League World Series.
“We love to go and watch the kids,” he said.
“Dewey is very respected throughout the country and very
well-known,” said Jeffrey Miller, District 17 umpire-in-chief
for the past three years. “We were at a conference in New
Orleans and somebody said, ‘Hey, there’s Dewey.’ ”
And in 2004, the state Senate awarded Hudman a Medallion
of Excellence for his contributions to the children of Florida.
Miller was mentored by Hudman to the point where he
now handles protests.
“Knowing the rules as he does, Dewey helps us train and
teach umpires when we have clinics,” said Miller, whose
first district position was umpire-in-chief for Martin County
North. “He goes out of his way and out of his own schedule to
be there for the league. We were short a man for a girls (age)
9-10 softball tournament and he jumped right in. And those
games can take forever. He has a standing joke, ‘Let’s get this
moving. I have an appointment with my pillow.’ Dewey is the
glue that holds everything together,” Miller said. E
Port St. Lucie Magazine 45
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