[Rich]

Originally Posted by lawump

I'll give two relatively recent examples:

#1) 3 years ago I showed up at an SEC school for a 12:30 Saturday game. It was pooring. The head coach did not want to cancel (or schedule a doubleheader for Sunday). Every other Division 1 game in a four state area was canceled. We started at approx. 6:30 when the system finally moved out.

The outfield was a lake, but the infield was covered. I was on the plate, but I was not the senior umpire. Rather, I had a long time SEC conference umpire (several World Series, too) as a crew chief. He didn't even think of arguing with the head coach. It was the head coach's call.

#2) Two weeks ago I had an American Legion game scheduled for 7 p.m. on a Friday night. At 6:45 it started lightning. It never rained hard...just on-and-off drizzle, but it never stopped lightning until the home team's legion athletic officer banged it at 8:45. I did not argue with him at all about waiting. It appeared on radar that there was going to be a chance to get it in...but the thunderstorm cell just never moved.

Now with that said, when I was a MiLB umpire I once told a GM: "It's you're call until we get the line-up cards, but let me say this, 'once I get the cards, I'm banging the game because there is no way we're playing on that field.' Now, you go and make any decision you want."

When I work Division I baseball for DI money, I'll wait. In the Legion example, it would depend on what I had going on and when. If it was a 1PM game and I had 7PM concert tickets, I wouldn't wait to start the game until 5PM.