OHSAA Playoff - Rainouts

R

reggieDunlop

Member
Who has the authority to postpone a playoff game before it happens? We traveled to a road game yesterday, raining the entire time. It rained throughout the warmups and radar showed rain continuing. At the pre-game meeting the umpire said he will not allow the game to start under these conditions and the game was postponed at that point. This clearly could have been avoided by postponing the game an hour before the start time, but who has the authority to do so in the playoffs? NFHS rulebook states the umpire doesn't have authority until after the game starts..
 
 
reggieDunlop said:
Who has the authority to postpone a playoff game before it happens? We traveled to a road game yesterday, raining the entire time. It rained throughout the warmups and radar showed rain continuing. At the pre-game meeting the umpire said he will not allow the game to start under these conditions and the game was postponed at that point. This clearly could have been avoided by postponing the game an hour before the start time, but who has the authority to do so in the playoffs? NFHS rulebook states the umpire doesn't have authority until after the game starts..
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Seems from what you stated the umpire broke the rules by not letting the game start. That was before not after.
 
19AL63 said:
Seems from what you stated the umpire broke the rules by not letting the game start. That was before not after.
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To be blunt, aren’t we splitting hairs? The ump was there and felt it was unplayable. Would it have made a difference if he started the game, allowed one pitch, and then suspended it?
 
GoEaglesCvc said:
To be blunt, aren’t we splitting hairs? The ump was there and felt it was unplayable. Would it have made a difference if he started the game, allowed one pitch, and then suspended it?
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I was hoping somebody in the know would educate us on how games can be called off for bad weather. I travel over an hour for home games to see my granddaughter play so would not be happy to travel those miles just to have a gamed called that could have been called long before. First two playoff games are at home for them. We are headed to game two with a win of game one. I know it was a split of the hair but as bald as I am thought it might help my very large forehead.
 
the home team coach, athletic director, or site manager should be making these decisions. once the umpires arrive to the field they should be talking to these same people. when i umpire, if it was conditions as the op stated, i would inform them before the coaches meeting that the game wouldn't start. once i get to the field my jurisdiction begins as to whether or not the field is playable.

jtk
()
 
site manager (generally is the hosting's site AD) makes that call.

With the weather in SWO the past few weeks I would say you have to make every attempt to play.

I know my son had a JV baseball game last week, it was clear and not a drop of rain at all , all day at our complex. Teams warm up , get a half inning in and it rained for 15 minutes and we were done. I live less than a mile from the school and when we got home our street was bone dry.

Welcome to Ohio. make every attempt to play as long as the playing surface allows it.
 
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