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The lightning was followed by a small rumble of thunder about 10 seconds later. It was not 200 feet from players- when I said centre field I meant in that direction, but certainly not close to the diamond.
Alright Steve I can accept the fact that umpiring isn't for me if I put myself at risk for lawsuits. But it's not really the lawsuits that concern me, it's the safety of the players. Anytime we get lightning everyone just goes into the dugout or bench area thinking that shelter from rain also provides shelter from lightning, so they wouldn't have been any safer had I called the game. Better to play out the last 1 or 2 outs than have everyone standing in the dugouts hoping that the game gets resumed.
As a side note, I had a game today as a player in which a flash of lightning went off more than an hour before the game. We had another flash in the 7th or 8th inning, but nobody said anything and the game was completed.
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