Derecho hits Wrigley Field Chicago

[Kevin Bowman]

Scary night Monday night in the Chicago area, almost had a worst case scenario considering 42000 people were watching the Cubs against the Astros

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo0BMDoMzJ4&feature=related

caution strong language

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBUfFKB7iFg


tornado warning was out for this storm

 

[Jeremy Ludin]

Nice! I was watching the game on ESPN when it was delayed the first time hoping to see that sucker hit, but it cut away to another game. They never showed any highlights on Baseball Tonight either. Good to finally see some footage. Thanks for the links!

 

[Wesley Luginbyhl]

That game resumed 2 & 1/2 hrs later and they played 2 innings before storms reformed and moved into the area again. I watched the radar as both rounds moved into Chicago. The second rounds of storms brought more intense lightning than the first round. One struck across the street before they finally called the game for good. They had video of Astros's Berkman on FSN when that bolt struck. He left the field in one quick move and I think had no intention of going back out there. Then on ESPN Sportscenter they showed the Cub's dogout reaction as Berkman split off the field as well as a picture of the bolt. From watching the game, I would had left the field long before he did. They were pushing their luck out there.

 

[Matthew Fischer]

Just to shows how out of date old stadiums are. Comiskey aka US Cellular field has a basement under the whole concourse i believe! Should be able to hold all the crowd. If i was at the game at Comiskey i'll walk myself to the bullpen bar and watch from there!

 

[Joel Wright]

As much as I didn't want the game to be called that night, the umpires really should have called it a lot earlier. I've never seen a baseball game that had thunder almost continually booming in the background, and yet play continued. At one point I seen a reflection of light from lightning off of Alfonso Soriano at the plate! I couldn't believe they were still playing. At the same time, I really wanted the game to continue since the damn Cubs were losing lol.

I'm sure the umpire crew got a stern talking to from their superiors after the game at some point.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

I was thinking the same thing, Joel. I wanted the storms to hold off to give us a chance to put up 2 runs since it had the feel that we were ready to come back. At the same time, I can't ever remember watching a baseball game on t.v. where I could hear thunder booming continuously via the t.v.

The strike that finally called it was close enough that it actually glitched the cameras. I thought my satellite feed was briefly interfered with at first.

 

[Danny Neal]

One has to wonder what the standard would be when/if a bolt actually does hit a spectator or player in the future. I know when I play (and this isn't even close to the MLB) we play in lightning and I absolutely hate it. The MLB kind of contradicts the saying "If you can hear it you are close enough to be struck" I know numerous park districts around the world that have that lightning detector with air horns. If little leaguers have to suspend play when lightning gets within 10 miles, why not major leaguers? I actually had this conversation with Curtis Granderson of the Detroit Tigers earlier this year and he said he HATED playing in thundery weather. LOL I bet Lance Berkman does too now!

 

[Joel Wright]

Ever since Lee Trevino was hit by lightning back in the 80s (I think), the PGA takes the issue very seriously. The slightest rumble of thunder will set off the air horns stopping play. Of course, on a golf course there's little or no cover. At a baseball stadium at least people can head inside. However, it still takes time for the fans to vacate the seats and funnel into the exits.

This latest "incident" may be enough for the umpire crews to start taking it more seriously. I'm sure they received many letters with complaints. As much as I HATE seeing a game stopped, it really should be taken as seriously per how the PGA does. We definitely don't want to see somebody get lit up on the field or in the stands to make the decisions about stopping play more firm.

By the way, I sure wish that storm would have rolled through a few hours earlier and saved the loss for the Cubs lol.

 

[Danny Neal]

A Houston Astros blog was apparently calling for the crew chief Wally Bell to be suspended due to his decision to keep the game going.

A little excerpt from Lance Berkman on MLB.com


"Let me say this -- I've never been more nervous on the field in my life. Growing up in Texas, you see those kinds of storms all the time. You learn that lightning is nothing to fool around with. I'll stand out there in a rain storm all day long. But thunder and lightning, in that kind of proximity -- it's definitely a hazard.
"You have to get the fans out of there. We have to be out there. But if you give those fans a reason to hang around, they will. I think tonight was a night where they needed to be discouraged from being outside in those kind of conditions."

-- Lance Berkman commenting on resuming Monday night's game against the Cubs after a delay of two hours and 45 minutes despite thunder and lightning still present near Wrigley Field. The game was finally called with one out in the bottom of the eighth after a lightning bolt struck nearby. (Houston Chronicle)"

Link to article

A quick search around the MLBPA and MLB provided zero results on their policy of lightning. I remember back in the early 00's an ATL Braves game was on TBS and I was watching it and a torrential thunderstorm was nearby and they kept playing through it until a bolt of lightning hit the stadium lighting in the left field upperdeck where they finally called it. Makes you wonder what the official policy (if there is one) the MLB has.

 

[Michael Towers]

As much as I didn't want the game to be called that night, the umpires really should have called it a lot earlier. I've never seen a baseball game that had thunder almost continually booming in the background, and yet play continued. At one point I seen a reflection of light from lightning off of Alfonso Soriano at the plate! I couldn't believe they were still playing. At the same time, I really wanted the game to continue since the damn Cubs were losing lol.

I'm sure the umpire crew got a stern talking to from their superiors after the game at some point.

I was seeing the flashes myself and thinking the same thing. Then I looked at radar and thought what the heck are they doing? Play should have been stopped much earlier; perhaps it should never have been resumed. Regarding the ump crew, its evident they need to have better lightning awareness but that’s not enough. If lightning can strike more than 30 miles away from the parent storm, the umps might not have a clue that a potentially life threatening weather situation is approaching. MLB needs to have a better system in place, be it its own “weather deskâ€￾ with someone monitoring weather or some type of coordination with local meteorologists. The umps might know when its raining too hard but they need help in the lightning department. In the case of the Cubs game it took a strike in the immediate area to move them to call the game. It never should have gotten to that point.

 

[Danny Neal]

I think each field has their own "meteorologist" and I use that term very loosely (more like a groundskeeper) and they are the ones who run out to the umpires between innings and say "hey we have 20 minutes or hey we have a 3 hour window."

In this case, the storms on the north side were almost stationary at their onset. I bet you between the bottom 6th to the bottom of the 7th the groundskeeper went out there *thinking the storms were still stationary* and said "hey we have some time to get this in." It had started raining a bit when that bolt hit near the field that eventually ended the game. I guess they started moving south quicker than they thought.

 

[Danny Neal]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVEZSlA-dmo&feature=related - I am undecided what to think about the evacuation of Wrigley. Various times year hear their personnel screaming "DON'T PANIC, GET DOWN BELOW GROUND"

What kind of plan would you implement there? It is not exactly a state of the art facility, there is no REAL shelter anywhere is there? I have been there about 8 times and I literally walked into the stadium up a ramp and was in the seating areas. I guess this all stems back to the "Armageddon packed 100,000 people football game with an F5 bearing down"

Bottom line: When it comes to severe weather, most major sports associations are severely under prepared/"ignorant"(in terms of not-knowing or having the knowledge to prepare) and that is a sad thing. What can ya do though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnPDIfY-3Ac&NR=1 - another one