Lightening
 

I had a game this year where I was on the bases, and we kept getting flashes of streak lightening behind the backstop where my partner was not facing. In between innings I went to him just to touch base on the weather. I told him that I was getting a bit nervous about the lightening, but that it was his call as he was plate ump. He then told me that I should say something if I feel the lightening is bad enough to suspend the game. I told him no, that is not the way it is done. The base umpire has nothing to say about weather or darkness. But I decided to follow his directions as he is crew chief.

Next inning, the lightening gets worse, so I call time and tell him that it is getting worse. He is absolutely clueless as to what to do, so I suggest we suspend the game for 10 minutes till it gets better. He agrees, so we tell both coaches the plan, and they are fine with that. I then tell him "okay 'John', let's go into the community centre building for ten minutes". He is all like "I'm not going in there, I need to stay here to watch and see if the lightening gets any worse". I tell him something along the lines of "no, it is stupid to stand around outside when we have already labelled the situation as too dangerous to be outside in the first place." And he tells me "well everyone else is still here" and I explain to him that that is not our problem, it's their responsibility to go inside now that we have suspended the ballgame.

Then I say "well I'm going inside" and tells me "fine, go". I take a few steps to leave, then decide "no that's stupid too. We are partners and have to stay together". So we wait the ten minutes, then resume the game. Then in between innings later, we are standing together discussing the weather, and a streak of lightening goes through the sky that he sees. He calls the game and we go home.

I think that it is up to partners to communicate effectively, and to always be on the same page. However the base umpire should not have any say in the suspension of a ballgame due to inclimate weather or light failure. If the plate guy can't see it, then that is just too bad. It is also important for both umpires to set a good example by practicing safety, which my partner was not willing to do in this case.

Our association has adopted the 30/30 rule.

Once lightening is observed, we begin counting. If the thunder is heard within 30 seconds of counting, the game is suspended until 30 minutes after the last lightening has occurred.

Should there be additional lightening accompanied by thunder within 30 seconds before the 30 minutes are up, the 30 minute counts starts over

All umpires are instructed to follow this procedure so communication about the issue is not an issue.

Our state high school association has adopted a rule that states that if any game official, not just the PU or head referee, sees lightning or hears thunder the game stops - period. Then you wait 30 minutes from the last flash of lightning or clap of thunder before restarting the game. The local Little League District has adopted the same policy. When I work a game for a league that has no policy, I use that same policy. If Mother Nature does not allow you to restart, too bad. Don't mess with Mother Nature. If the players and coaches don't care about their own safety, I care about mine. Lightning can kill you and you don't screw around with it.

If you see lightning and don't stop the game, I hope you have lots of money or really good liability insurance. If something bad happens, you're going to need one or the other or both.


Does your partner have a death wish. If your partner wants to be a crispy umpire, let him. If you're close enough to see lightning, you're close enough to get fried. Refer your partner to this site:
http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_pls/ncaa.html or http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/index.htm

So you saw lightning, he didn't, and you didn't step up to say the game should be suspended?

Not sure about Canada, but in the US, if this happened, you'd get sued for negligence, and you'd probably lose.

I don't know about up North, but if a lawyer ever found out that you had an oppurtunity to safely stop a game and didn't, and there was an injury, you would probably be held more liable than your partner.

Safety is EVERYBODY'S responsibility.

Here, is a time when bending the rules is not only acceptable but, very wise.

Not to make light of a serious subject, Canadaump (and by extension, Garth, who answered in kind), but what you saw flashing in the sky was "lightning".

"Lightening" is something else altogether.

Maybe it's a Canadian thing, like "colour", eh? :rolleyes:

The NYS Section VI, and by extension, my own association has adopted a policy where if we hear thunder or see lightning, play is suspended for :30 min. If, within that :30 minutes there is more lightning or thunder, the coundown begins again. I had a sitch where we had that happen in a summer rec game last year and play was suspended for well over an hour.

Damn. It's that one word I screw up over and over. I could get my Phd. and I'd still screw that word up.

lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning, lightning.

There. I bet I won't screw up lightening again!

There is an active case in Spokane over this issue. I'll be reporting on in it at off.com in a couple of weeks.

Lightning
 

If your partner didn't see it, keep playing the game.

30 seconds means the lightning is 5 miles away. Even if a storm is moving at a slow 10 MPH it will be on you in 6 minutes. And a lightning bolt traveled from cloud to earth over a distance of maybe 4 miles or more, so 6 miles away ain't squat.

If I see a lightning bolt the game stops, regardless of what I hear or when I hear it. 30 minute rule applies as well. It is rare around my part of NC, to stop a game due to lightning and it get started back up. It would have to be some kind of tournament game where a 2 hour delay is better than waiting another day.

We do the same as Bassman - if we see lightning or hear thunder we clear the field for 30 minutes. It's a joint responsibility and is usually something we mention during our pre-game if the conditions warrant.

One thing I have that helps me is I have a CB radio with a WX frequency, so if the conditions are iffy at best, I'll switch this on to get the NOAA weather channel en route to my game.

One of the worst nights I had with lightning was a few years back. It was an 8:00 start on July 3. The weather report called for a chance of thunder showers. A few of the surrounding towns had fireworks displays and with the haze from the humidity in the lights it was difficult to discern what was approaching lightning and what was the flash from fireworks. It was near impossible to listen for lightning because of the boom from the fireworks and the highway that passed by the field.

I grew up in Georgia where we had some wicked lighting storms. When I was a kid, we had lighting hit our house and completely blow out my exterior bedroom wall. This happened while I was in bed at the time. So I have a real respect for lighting. Might also explain why I don't hear so good now.:eek: :)

I live in California now and it is a rarity to see it here in the San Francisco Bay area. I don’t even remember it being discussed at my association meetings. If I did see it I would use the 30/30 rule that Garth mentioned unless we have a different policy.