The lights went out . . . .

[Andy]

Thanks for the rule cite, Tom. 10-8-E is the rule I was thinking of.

Just to throw some more into the discussion, "suspending play" and "calling time" are not synonomous, in my opinion.

To me, "suspense" means that the play will resume at the point of suspension. the most common example would be weather conditions. "Time" means that this play is over, we will start the next play.

Obviously, in this situation, it is impossible to resume play at the exact point it would be suspended, with a fly ball in flight coming down toward third base.

Maybe it's just semantics, but the original question was "Should time have been called the instant the lights went out?"

My answer was "no" based on 10-8-E. Let the play finish. It's either "game over" or let the league decide how it finishes.