methodist musings

that’s what jeff elven said anyway…and i found it pretty clever, the fan of puns that i am.

i had gotten to the softball fields last night to umpire a game (summer softball for the asa via the bloomington-normal girl’s softball association), put on my plate gear, and had run the official coaches meeting. we saw some lightning and had called time. by asa rules at each sight of lightning the game must be held for 30 minutes with the field cleared.

we’d sent the teams to the dugouts when the head guy called the softball complex staff. he cleared the park by sending all teams, coaches, and parents to their cars. we, as umpires, are stuck on the field or in the dugouts waiting to hear any official word on the storm or resuming play. my partner and i had just walked into the dugout when mother nature released her fury. for 10 minutes we couldn’t see the school that sits just 150 yards beyond the outfield fence. the rain came down hard…not only fast, but hard, and just as an added element the hail started. dime to nickel-sized hail was all over the place; it probably fell for about 6 of those 10 minutes. it bounced off the fields a good 3 feet in the air before falling again. one piece even bounced high enough to hit me in the face.

needless to say the games were cancelled, i walked back to the car in the hail storm and all those poor teams had to walk back to the dugouts to pick up their equipment they had left. what a night…another first for me: hail on the diamond.