Hey Bengals,
Whenever rain is in the forecast, we will inevitably receive multiple inquiries throughout the day (via email and social media) asking if baseball is cancelled. To help provide some general information about game day cancellations, please review the following...
The #1 reason for cancelling games is safety. If the field conditions are unplayable, or if the current/forecasted weather includes thunderstorms or Air quality levels are unsafe, the call will be made to cancel games / practices.
If the Town closes fields on rainy days, they will likely email us; as well as post on their own social media, between 3:00-4:00PM. If the Town does not close fields, volunteers from the Association will try to visit diamonds before 5:00pm to determine playability. If games or practices are cancelled, you will find the update in your SportsHeadz App.
There is also a Cancellation Alert Banner that will be visible at the top of our homepage - whenever events for the day have been cancelled. It is possible that practices / games at certain diamonds may be cancelled, while games / practices at other diamonds may not. Some diamonds simply drain better than others after/during extended rainfall. In the event of an air quality situation we will monitor the quality of the air and if it is recommended that no outdoor activities be conducted games & practices will be cancelled.
In many cases, the decision to cancel games or practices will be left up to the Umpires/Coaches when they get to the diamond. If we can get the games in, even if it's a little bit wet/sloppy, that is always the preferred course of action, as long as it can be done safely as outlined by Baseball Ontario Guidelines, you can find more info
here.
Make-up games can be hard to schedule, especially when it generally means HL teams having to play on a different night than their normal night - due to a lack of diamond availability. We will try and make up missed gamed within 2 weeks of the cancelled game. Practices however WILL NOT be rescheduled.
During game play if there is thunder is it on the umpire to stop the game all participants are to head to shelter and wait 30 min. IF no thunder has occurred during those 30 min the game may resume pending field conditions. IF there is thunder at any time during those first 30 min the timer will reset again. Once it is deemed that play cannot continue the Home Plate umpire will call the game.
If you have not received an update through the SportsHeadz App, and there is no cancellation banner on the website, it is safe to assume that the game or practice is still going on - even if it's a bit wet. While we make every effort to follow-up on emails and social media messages, the volume of messages on days with bad weather can sometimes exceed our ability to respond.
We hope this helps answer some questions.
Sincerely,
Your OHMBA Executive