Commentary
Rule 4.03 (e) of the Official Baseball Rules, 2015 Edition states:
4.03 (e) As soon as the home team’s batting order is handed to the umpire-in-chief the umpires are in charge of the playing field and from that moment the umpire-in-chief shall have sole authority to determine when a game shall be called, suspended or resumed on account of weather or the condition of the playing field.
Not only are umpires in charge of your weather safety, but Rule 4.03 also carries the following directive: “The umpire-in-chief shall at all times try to complete a game.”
These are the same individuals that you scream at, curse at, and bemoan. The same individuals that sometimes require replay to make the correct call.
(Jon Nese, professor of meteorology at Penn State, discusses lightning and Major League Baseball’s lack of effective policy)
Umpires have more to accomplish on every pitch than most players do. Given Rule 4.03 (e) and its completion directive, is it any surprise that we continue to have close calls with hazardous weather at MLB games?
Images and videos of life-threatening lightning strikes flashing near, on, and over MLB parks are passed through social media like the dreaded ballpark ‘Wave.’
@ESPNChiCubs @Skilling the scene at Busch Stadium right now. pic.twitter.com/ty26AVpwOE
— Hcky Mama #BLM (@qopmag2000) June 29, 2015
How many times will we watch in anxious awe as risk-taking grounds crews fight dangerous wind-whipped tarps while attempting to protect not themselves, but a patch of infield dirt?
To Sandy Alderson, General Manager of the New York Mets and Chair of MLB’s Official Playing Rules Committee, it’s time to change Rule 4.03 (e).
For the amount of money Angels All-Star and enthusiastic weather geek Mike Trout makes in 12 at bats, MLB could hire a full-time meteorologist responsible for fan safety in adverse weather conditions for an entire season.
For less than one-tenth of one percent of the combined payroll of each MLB team, every MLB team could have a meteorologist on-site to proactively monitor weather conditions to secure fan, staff, player and even umpire safety!
With all due respect to Jack Norworth, who penned his famous ditty about the frivolity and culinary simplicity of going to a Major League Baseball game, it’s time for change.
Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd,
Buy me insurance and Cracker Jacks,
Then I’ll know that it’s safe to come back…
SO it’s root root root for the safe team,
If they don’t win it’s a shame,
But it TAKES, JUST, ONE strike to kill,
At the old ball game.
It is time to put weather safety at MLB ballparks in the hands of professional meteorologists.
The author, Dr. Kevin Kloesel, is a professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma (OU). He is the meteorologist responsible for providing weather forecast and weather safety information to the OU Office of Emergency Preparedness.
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