Cell phones at the table

[dblref]

Originally Posted by Stat-Man

dblref:

Do you normally remove team statisticans (note that in my OP, I clearly said someone else was the official scorer) for having cell phones turned on? IMNSHO, that seems to be the mark of an OOO.

In that particular gym, you'd have to have rabbit ears to know whose cell phone was ringing since the gym is so small that the table is 8 feet off the ground on an upper level and right up against fan seating.

A good thing you don't do our city softball tournament, since I keep my cell on in the press box because I get scores called in from 3 other fields so I can keep the scores/brackets updated. and even though there are no other games going on at the same time as the final, I keep my phone on anyways.

I don't think of this as having rabbit ears or being an OOO. If you are sitting at the table, and it doesn't matter if you are the clock operator, score keeper, stat person, whatever, and your phone is ringing, it is distracting. A couple of years ago, I had a young man (visiting team book) removed from the table for using his cell phone. I had already told him that it was a distraction and he needed to turn it off. About 2 minutes after this conversation, we were shooting f/t's and it was fairly quiet. Just as the shooter was about to take the 2nd shot, the cell phone rang again, and everybody just stopped and looked at the table. I asked the AD to remove the guy and the AD agreed. There is no reason to have the phone turned on at the table. If your calls are that important, then you don't need to be on the table. Look at your last sentence...."even though there are no other games going on at the same times as the final, I keep my phone anyways." Why?