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**Central vs Baytown Lee POSTPONED UNTIL 2PM**

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FROM THE BAYTOWN SUN:

By DAVE ROGERS

dave.rogers(at)baytownsun.com

BEAUMONT - Is football delayed football denied?

The Lee Ganders will find out this afternoon at 2 p.m. That’s the time for which their opening game of the 2007 football season against Beaumont Central has been rescheduled after it was postponed Friday night because of unseen lightning strikes miles away from Babe Zaharias Stadium in Beaumont’s north end.

The two teams got on the field twice to warm up, but never kicked off what was supposed to be a 7:30 p.m. start Friday. Unfavorable readings on the lightning meters carried by both teams’ trainers wouldn’t allow them to play.

“When we have (lightning) hits between three to eight miles away on our static electricity meter, we have to postpone the game 30 minutes,†said Central High head trainer Jacob Pfaff, who along with Lee head trainer Amy Newell was the center of attention this night.

The two teams were making their second serious try to start the game and appeared minutes away from kickoff at 8:45 p.m. when a final round of what the two weather watchers said was lightning registered on their meters.

That’s when Ganders head coach Dick Olin and Central coach Donald Stowers made the joint decision to give up on playing Friday and try again today.

“It wasn’t really our decision,†Olin said. “We just set a time after which we wouldn’t start and we reached it. We’ll come back and play tomorrow.â€

At about 8:30 p.m., the announcement was made in the press box that the coaches had decided if they couldn’t start by 9:30 p.m., they’d try again Saturday.

When lightning crackled on the trainers’ high-tech gadgets at 8:45 p.m., that meant a 30-minute delay before the teams could try to warm up again, according to UIL rules. That didn’t leave enough time to start the game by 9:30 p.m.

“We compared our lightning meter with Baytown Lee’s lightning meter and every time both of them had the same readings,†Pfaff said. “At the end, my lightning detector was going crazy, showing lightning zero to three miles away. Baytown Lee’s detector was going crazy, too, showing zero to three miles.

“When it does that, we have no choice but to be safe for everybody.â€

When the official announcement calling the game came, there were still about 150 die-hard Gander fans remaining in the visitor’s seats on the east side of the stadium.

That was about a third of the original group that showed up in a light rain and sat patiently under umbrellas on the metal bleachers. About an hour into the delay, a steady trickle of Gander fans began to head for their cars.

The Lee band and the Celebrities drill team checked out at about that time.

“We went in and we played the fight song “Dull Razor Blues†one time and we left because of the lightning,†band director Alec McGuire said from the parking lot as the last of the instruments were being packed in the band’s equipment trucks.

“The Beaumont band director told me they were doing the same thing. It’s disappointing because we worked hard and the kids wanted to perform, but we were just not going to take a chance.â€

The band won’t travel back to Beaumont for Saturday’s do-over.

“It costs too much money,†McGuire said. “Some kids would like to, but it’s just too expensive.â€

You can bet the Gander cheerleaders will make the trip. They were pleading with McGuire to bring his musicians back to the stadium when it appeared the game might actually get started.

“This blows so much,†said junior Braun Dwyer.

“If they’re gone, we can’t do our dances,†chimed in junior Sharla Simpson.

Rachel Hill, a sophomore cheerleader, had a solution.

“We’ll have to make our own music,†she said.

The only rhythm Cathy Ruben heard for most of the night was thump, thump of rain - alternating between drizzle and downpour — on her big green and white umbrella. Like most of the fans, the mother of Gander tackle Xavier Ruben never left her seat between entering the stadium and leaving it.

“It rained hard, hard enough to get wet, but I don’t think it was hard enough to cancel,†she said.

Reporters in the west side press box never saw a lightning strike in the skies in their 180-degree field of vision and Ruben, whose view was of the opposite horizon, said she never saw lightning, either.

Oh well.

After arriving at the stadium around 5 p.m., shuttling back and forth between the steamy fieldhouse and the air-conditioned bus about three times and dressing to play even more times, Lee guard Mike Garcia wasn’t questioning any decision Friday night.

“I was wanting to play a lot,†he said. “We all worked hard this week and were ready. But it started getting late and I’d just as soon come back.

“It’s no big deal. We’ll get a good night’s sleep and we’ll be ready tomorrow.â€

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gary-us-bonds

gary-us-bonds

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As I said on the other board that I frequent....

“When we have (lightning) hits between three to eight miles away on our static electricity meter, we have to postpone the game 30 minutes,†said Central High head trainer Jacob Pfaff, who along with Lee head trainer Amy Newell was the center of attention this night.

So you have to suspend play for 30 minutes if the lightning is within 8 miles this states.  Everyone agree that's what he's saying?

“At the end, my lightning detector was going crazy, showing lightning zero to three miles away. Baytown Lee’s detector was going crazy, too, showing zero to three miles.

So at the end the lightning was within 3 miles?  We can all agree this is what's being said here?

Now, here comes the juicy part...

A quick search of google maps shows that Zaharias is less than 5 miles from Cardinal Stadium.  How is it mathematically possible to be within 3 miles of Zaharias and not within 8 miles of Cardinal Stadium?  I'll answer for you.  It's not possible.  Something fishy was going on.  I don't know who was to blame, but the game could have been played last night.  Maybe it was Lee that didn't want to play.  Who knows? 

They will play today though, and I guess in the end that's all that matters.

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gary-us-bonds

gary-us-bonds

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If you go back and read what I wrote, then realize that 85% of what I say on a messageboard, I say with a sarcastic tone, then it will all make more sense to you.

The second thing you have to remember about me is that I'm stubborn and enjoy arguing.

Did something fishy happen last night?  Of course it did.

Is it going to kill them to go back today and play?  Nahhh

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