A ..... crime delay??!?

[HokieUmp]

Ultimately, the game was killed by a combination of a lack of lights at the field, and lightning strikes that seemed to occur at about 34 minute intervals (stupid nature!), but during the 3+ hours of my life that were consumed, I had a first:  a crime delay.

 

So we're in the bottom of the 4th, and I hear sounds in the background behind me, out at a 5-way intersection in the town we're at.  Not being a gun type, and paying more attention to the game, I can't tell if it's a crashing sound, or shots, or some damn thing. In a break in play between batters, I see a guy 'running' down the street, followed by a sheriff's deputy or two some seconds - possibly the Slowest. Footchase. Ever.

The way the deputies were keeping a hand down by their holsters, and not generally knowing what the [redacted] was going on, I decide to pull the defense off the field, and get both teams in their concrete-block dugouts.  The parents, and my partner and I, are on our own, but I'm okay with that.

Problem is, what do we do now? So we waited a while and just watched.  Various sirens in different direction, and police cars coming and going, but still no real clue. Eventually, a different deputy pulled up and told us to just leave the field and head for the school's parking lot area, further from the scene.

While we were waiting, there was lightning.  After the all-clear on the chasing-the-guy thing, we still had time to kill for the lightning.  Then we get another 1/2 inning or so, with ANOTHER mandatory stoppage for lightning.  At that point, it was about 7:15p local, so I told the coaches "another lightning strike, and we're done, since the lack of lights and the forced delay is going to make it too dark to see."  (Also, the visitors had a 1:40 bus ride back to their school.)

Two batters in after we resumed, 3-2 pitch .... <pow!>, a huge streak in the distance.  "Time!  We're done.  That was ball four, by the way."  And it was finally over.

But ..... crime delay?? How does THAT get recorded in the box score?

(AND .... for the all the sound and fury of the chase, the dude got away.)

http://wtkr.com/2015/05/18/man-wanted-in-hampton-accused-of-stealing-tow-truck-leading-troopers-on-chase/

[Jimurray]

Ultimately, the game was killed by a combination of a lack of lights at the field, and lightning strikes that seemed to occur at about 34 minute intervals (stupid nature!), but during the 3+ hours of my life that were consumed, I had a first:  a crime delay.

 

So we're in the bottom of the 4th, and I hear sounds in the background behind me, out at a 5-way intersection in the town we're at.  Not being a gun type, and paying more attention to the game, I can't tell if it's a crashing sound, or shots, or some damn thing. In a break in play between batters, I see a guy 'running' down the street, followed by a sheriff's deputy or two some seconds - possibly the Slowest. Footchase. Ever.

The way the deputies were keeping a hand down by their holsters, and not generally knowing what the [redacted] was going on, I decide to pull the defense off the field, and get both teams in their concrete-block dugouts.  The parents, and my partner and I, are on our own, but I'm okay with that.

Problem is, what do we do now? So we waited a while and just watched.  Various sirens in different direction, and police cars coming and going, but still no real clue. Eventually, a different deputy pulled up and told us to just leave the field and head for the school's parking lot area, further from the scene.

While we were waiting, there was lightning.  After the all-clear on the chasing-the-guy thing, we still had time to kill for the lightning.  Then we get another 1/2 inning or so, with ANOTHER mandatory stoppage for lightning.  At that point, it was about 7:15p local, so I told the coaches "another lightning strike, and we're done, since the lack of lights and the forced delay is going to make it too dark to see."  (Also, the visitors had a 1:40 bus ride back to their school.)

Two batters in after we resumed, 3-2 pitch .... <pow!>, a huge streak in the distance.  "Time!  We're done.  That was ball four, by the way."  And it was finally over.

But ..... crime delay?? How does THAT get recorded in the box score?

(AND .... for the all the sound and fury of the chase, the dude got away.)

http://wtkr.com/2015/05/18/man-wanted-in-hampton-accused-of-stealing-tow-truck-leading-troopers-on-chase/

​While a lightning strike is reason to suspend the game, didn't you hear thunder prior to the strike and/or during the 34 minute intervals? Thunder is normally the criteria to suspend games for the threat of a strike.

[Nafxos]

At my first-ever high school game a few years ago, I'm BU.  With 2 outs in the bottom of the first, I see there's some sort of delay but I can't tell what's going on.  PU is asking for a batter, OHC can't find the batter, and nobody in the dugout seems to know what is going on.  After a couple of minutes they found him behind the dugout, being questioned by the police.

[OHUMP]

Had a varsity high school game once where the coach before the game came up and apologized to me that he was going to have to use and inexperienced catcher.  I asked him why since he still had a all city catcher that returned from last year.  He said he won't be back for 4 to 6 years as he had just been arrested for armed robbery that morning.

[HokieUmp]

​While a lightning strike is reason to suspend the game, didn't you hear thunder prior to the strike and/or during the 34 minute intervals? Thunder is normally the criteria to suspend games for the threat of a strike.

​I have to say, it sorta makes me sad that your takeaway was more about the lightning (a common issue) than the "5-oh chasing a crim" part (much less common, for me).

But to answer:  I'm fairly certain there was no thunder prior to our initial strikes - we were walking to the parking lot, as directed by the officer, when we saw those.  For the rest of the time, I really can't recall.  I probably ignored thunder in the middle part of the delay.  When I replay the events in my mind, I don't remember any thunder as a precursor to the last strike that killed everything once and for all, but my confidence level of that recall is not 100%.

[BuckeyeMike]

Had a 3 car pile-up just 20 yards over the right field fence right in the middle of an at-bat.....that was interesting.  

I'm down and set, pitcher is in his wind-up and SCREEEEEECH.........*SLAM*  

I called the pitch and then immediately called time as I could tell that all eyes were NOT on the ballgame anymore.  The ensuing sirens and peripheral action was quite the distraction to all in attendance.