Yo Marvin! Plate's Over There

Oliver Perez rocked me to sleep late Friday evening, which was a nice change from the nightmares one usually experiences from watching him pitch. He was smooth, the Mets were winning, the Padres were quiet, it was San Diego at midnight...except for the lack of Southern California sunshine, it may as well have been the ******* Catalina Wine Mixer. Then I wake up, groggily absorbing the ninth-inning score of 2-1. Here's Frankie Rodriguez, who can pull down three outs like the rest of us might grab forty winks. We may have lost all cachet this season, but K-Rod gives us prestige worldwide when it comes to closing out games. Right? I was awake for this. Marvin Hudson, however, was dead asleep. And while I sat approximately 2,447 miles from home plate at Petco Park, I was closer to the game's pivotal play than he was. Which would be fine except Hudson was the home plate ump who may as well have been on this side of the continent, snoozing on the other side of the couc...