[ASA/NYSSOBLUE]

Originally Posted by chapmaja

As a person who does bring my phone on the field, there are reasons I do.

First, in Rec League games, if there is an issue that arises, I need to be able to communicate with the powers that be, sometimes in a nearly immediate manner. Since we use parks all over the city, I may or may not be at a park with a site supervisor at my field. One park I work has two side by side fields. The supervisor is normally no more than 30 feet away. Another park has 5 fields and on these no backstops are near each other, so the supervisor may be 300 feet away, or may be 1500 feet away.

Second, I was a witness to a situation as a child that very well could have become deadly. I was watching my father's slow pitch team play when a team member from his team slide badly into third base and shattered his lower leg. This was pre mobile phones, so someone had to run to a business across the street from the park to call 911. While they were calling to get medical attention for this player, he started going into shock. He nearly died on the field as the result of a broken leg. At the same time all of this was happening, a thunderstorm also rolled into the area. A bolt of lightening hit in the area not far from the field while EMT's were stabilizing him for transport to the hospital.
What does that have to do with a cell phone? If an incident happened like that now, instead of someone having to run across a busy road to call 911, I have a way to call 911 in my back pocket. Rule #1 that I've always been told is in an emergency situation, don't expect someone else to take action. Take action yourself. I would easily be able to call 911 if the situation required it, and medical assistance would be able to arrive much faster.

Another reason to have my phone is for access to weather information. We often play double headers. On days we know the weather is questionable I can access the weather and see if we will be clear enough weather wise to get a legal game in. For most of our rec league games, a game ended by weather is official in the standings as long as 1/2 inning is completed (home team up in bottom half). If weather delays the game after that point, the game is official and will not be made up. The teams don't like this, so they aren't happy with starting a game that gets cancelled or delayed (the game clock still runs during a weather delay) a few minutes after first pitch. Since our league gives umpires some leeway in making the determination to start games, I am going to work with the players to assure things get handled in a manner best for the players. If this means looking at a weather radar before a game and deciding not to start the game (even if it costs me money), I would rather do that than have the team upset and find a different league to umpire in (short term loss for a long term gain).

Do I use my phone as a timer? Nope, I have a Fitbit on my wrist I use for timing games. I start my "workout" at the start of the game and have an easy rundown of the game time and my workout at the same time. Do I risk something happening to my phone? Possibly, but since I always keep the phone in my back pocket, I think the risk of it being damaged is low enough I'm not to worried about it. 95% of the time I remember to shut off the timer.

I see no reason to carry one in both situations - in (1), since everybody has a cell phone today, there's going to be someone either on the bench or in the stands who's going to be making that call; and in (2), I have many times asked a player/spectator to look at a radar display. MY phone is safely in my vehicle....generally turned off!