Lights Out

[riverfalls57]

I am not an umpire but I observed an interesting situation at a game (12year olds) I was watching last week. Runner on second with one out, the batter hits the ball on the ground between second and third, neither the 3rd baseman nor the SS can make a play on the ball. Just as the ball reaches the outfield grass the lights go out (it was 9:30) making it almost impossible to see. The outfielder can't find the ball and both runners score. The Umpire never called for time. After the lights came back on (about 20 minutes later) the runner on second (who was between second and third when the field went dark) was allowed to score and the batter was put on second base. I have never seen a situation like this and wondered what the correct procedure is. Thanks for your time.

[mbyron]

There is no correct procedure, as the rules cannot anticipate every possible occurrence.

The umpires should have treated it as a routine single and awarded bases accordingly. The rules reference is 9.01(c).

[MD Longhorn]

As described, I'm probably putting BR on 1st and scoring the runner. But this is totally umpire judgement. Perhaps umpire felt the ball was going to get between the outfielders. Who really knows unless someone asks.

[Rich Ives]

This is the MLB ruling. It's a do-over in MLB. The PBUC manual has the same ruling for MiLB. Others may vary.


MLBUM

4.10 TEMPORARY FAILURE OF LIGHTS

In the event of a temporary failure of lights while a ball is in flight or a play is in progress and the umpires are not able to follow the play because of the light failure, the umpires will immediately call "Time." If a play is in progress when such light failure occurs and further action is possible, the entire play shall be nullified. When the lights are restored, play shall resume with the same situation as existed at the start of the play that was interrupted by the light failure.

[Kevin Finnerty]

If I'm running a big-league club, I'm paying a guy to be ready at all times to throw the light switch.