This past week was incredibly revealing. During the recent storms, many of which were extremely severe and deadly, the baseball fields were full; or shall we call them "The Killing Fields"?
When a construction company has employees out in the field, policy and law require that those men and women are removed from the field when lightning begins to strike in the area or when the atmosphere turns tornadic and the area is in a warning. Not so with local ball games.
More than 5 times in the past week just in our own area we watched coaches and fans alike make the decision to continue to play ball after the area was in a tornado warning, in fact, one game was played after tornadoes were witnessed ON THE GROUND in the same county!
Phone calls made to coaches ON THE FIELD made no difference, and calls made to parents at the game brought no results either. Is this how important sports are? Is this really where America's mentality is when it comes to worshipping the almighty game?
These young boys and girls are out in the open fields trusting that their coach, their parents and even their local government will protect them!
I realize that there are Park Districts around the country with rules and procedures for use of parks for athletics and that this situation would never occur in those municipalities- I am referring to the absolutely insane mentality of those in rural areas that continued to play ball with stands packed full of parents and fans despite the NWS issued WARNINGS!
This will not be the last time this is brought up in a Chasing4Life blog, in fact, consider this the first installment of MANY as we begin to research and investigate just who has policies and who doesn't, who ultimately decides if our childen live or die, and what we can do in areas where ignorance, thus far, has truly been bliss...
When a construction company has employees out in the field, policy and law require that those men and women are removed from the field when lightning begins to strike in the area or when the atmosphere turns tornadic and the area is in a warning. Not so with local ball games.
More than 5 times in the past week just in our own area we watched coaches and fans alike make the decision to continue to play ball after the area was in a tornado warning, in fact, one game was played after tornadoes were witnessed ON THE GROUND in the same county!
Phone calls made to coaches ON THE FIELD made no difference, and calls made to parents at the game brought no results either. Is this how important sports are? Is this really where America's mentality is when it comes to worshipping the almighty game?
These young boys and girls are out in the open fields trusting that their coach, their parents and even their local government will protect them!
I realize that there are Park Districts around the country with rules and procedures for use of parks for athletics and that this situation would never occur in those municipalities- I am referring to the absolutely insane mentality of those in rural areas that continued to play ball with stands packed full of parents and fans despite the NWS issued WARNINGS!
This will not be the last time this is brought up in a Chasing4Life blog, in fact, consider this the first installment of MANY as we begin to research and investigate just who has policies and who doesn't, who ultimately decides if our childen live or die, and what we can do in areas where ignorance, thus far, has truly been bliss...
