Gray Foul Poles

[Peruvian]

A high school coach is refurbishing his field and wants to paint his fair/foul poles gray. Is there any rule out there preventing him from doing so? I've looked in FED and OBR and it says nothing about the color they should be.

Thoughts?

[Rich Ives]

There isn't any playing rule against it, but ask the coach how well he thinks you'll be able to see a gray pole against a gray overcast sky.

[Leecedar]

Hey... you think you guys have it bad with grey foul poles? Just imagine what it's like for us in FL. After the hurricanes, we're better off when there's NO foul poles. All the ones that are still up are bent at wierd angles. That really makes life interesting on a long one down the line angling toward the pole.

[DG]

At the pre-game conference with the coaches you should mention to the home coach that you notice the fair poles are bent so you will not expect to hear any complaints about fair/foul down the line over the fence. Then give benefit of the doubt to the visitors and the poles will be straight for the next game if there are any close ones.

If they are grey you might tell the home coach that they may as well be invisible. They will be yellow for the next game if there is a close call during the game and the benefit of the doubt goes to visitors.

[Leecedar]

DG,

Yep... we do tell both coaches that we recognize the fair poles are bent, but we don't attempt to show ANY favoritism in any manner regarding close ones. We recognize that the situation down here is one like none other before (or hopefully, heretofore) and sometime before spring season, the fields will once again have nets, lights, fences (yep, some of them are gone, too) and straightened poles.

But, thanks for the idea. If we thought for an instant that there was any kind of malaise about it, we'd do something about it.

Lee

[EMD]

I am a Landscape Architect in St. Louis, the only authority that suggest the color of foul poles can be found in the Architectural Standards and many product representatives will encourage bright colors such as orange.

If she paints them gray, good luck.

[heykid41]

Painting foul poles gray is like playing hockey with a white puck.
Dumb as a sack of hammers!

[Rich Ives]

Originally posted by heykid41
Painting foul poles gray is like playing hockey with a white puck.
Dumb as a sack of hammers!

Doesn't matter what color the puck is at the moment now does it? ;-)

[heykid41]

Up here in the great white north... Hockey lives. The NHL interests me as much as watching paint dry. Until the playoffs, who cares? We have Junior A hockey, and an ECHL league team... the NHL could disappear and it wouldn't matter a lick.
Anyhow... we STILL require the puck to be a contrasting colour... and the foul poles should be brightly coloured too!
But you have made an excellent point.
Touche.

[Rich Ives]

We have an AHL team and the NHL players that are playing down seem to be doing it to stay in shape. The coach had to finally have a team meeting to let thom know the game isn't a personal playground.

[JugglingReferee]

Originally posted by heykid41
Painting foul poles gray is like playing hockey with a white puck.
Dumb as a sack of hammers!

Being Canadian as well, I miss the NHL a bit. We have an OHL team here, that even won the Memorial Cup 2 years ago, and an AHL team 35 mintues away. It's still not the NHL. (However, I do think the NHL needed a shake-up.)

Playing hockey with a white puck made me laugh!

Thanks for the hockey joke!

[Edited by JugglingReferee on Dec 4th, 2004 at 10:56 AM]

[waltjp]

Originally posted by heykid41
the NHL could disappear and it wouldn't matter a lick.

Isn't this exactly what has happened?