Quote:
Originally Posted by bob jenkins
That's the best reason to have a meter, imo. No one argues when the alarm goes off -- they just clear the field and wait for the "all clear."
That said, they aren't perfect and will give both false positives and false negatives. The latter is more problematic, so we must use some common sense -- I've stopped games even when the meter hasn't gone off.
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A few weeks ago on a Saturday night, I was working a men's softball game in a park where there was also a couple of LL games going on - one softball, one baseball. The forecast already had t-storm and tornado watches, and you could see in the west/northwest darkening skies.
Sure enough, about the 3rd inning, I hear distant thunder I keep going, as it was very distant, but was definitely keeping an ear out, and an eye open. After another 10/15 minutes, I heard thunder much closer, and cleared the field. I had to explain to one team the 30/30 concept (the other team actually had a fellow school softball ump on it, so they KNEW), and waited...BAM...more thunder....a little closer...I look over to the LL fields...and the idiots are still playing! After another five minutes, and a little more thunder, and even a touch of a distant flash, I actually trudged over - in full plate gear - to the concession stand, and sitting on the counter was a little tiny detector. I actually asked the lady at the stand why the heck they were still playing. She said she was wondering too. I told her the only detectors I need was here - pointing to my eyes and ears. So she started calling for somebody in charge, as I walked away, and they finally stopped play. Meanwhile, me and my partner both figured out that this game (and the one after - a DH), was simply not going to happen, so we we called it. Sure enough, as soon as I had taken my gear off, and driven up the road about five minutes - BAM! - a DELUGE - with multiple lightning flashes.
The whole point of this story is that, no matter what technology you want to trust, your eyes and ears (and experience)are almost always better tools to use - just like during a game!