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The safety of players, coaches, and spectators is of utmost importance to Ridge Baseball Club. In addition to the information below, all coaches are required to fulfill a number of requirements before they are allowed to coach our players.
If you have any safety-related concerns, please contact safety@ridgebaseballclub.com. If you would like to report an safety-related incident, please fill out our Incident Report Form.
"If you can see it, flee it; if you can hear it, clear it."
It is the policy of Ridge Baseball Club that the following requirements and procedures be followed with regard to ensuring the safety of everyone attending or participating in a Ridge Baseball game in the event of lightning:
1. Each league official (e.g., Board members), manager, coach, and umpire should read and become familiar with Lightning Safety Tips. This will help everyone understand the background information on this entire topic, including recent research and findings on lightning. https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/lightning/safetytips.html
2. PLAY WILL BE HALTED IMMEDIATELY BY THE UMPIRES IF:
- Lightning is observed anywhere on the skyline
- Thunder is heard
- The sky above or in the immediate proximity to the playing field looks threatening
3. Once play is halted, all players, managers, coaches, umpires, and spectators will move to a place of safety. THE DUGOUTS ARE NOT A PLACE OF SAFETY AT THE COMPLEX. Therefore, the safest available place is inside a hard topped motor vehicle.**
4. All adults and umpires in attendance will proactively ensure that children and others in their care will remain in their vehicles until the umpires say that it is safe to resume playing.
5. The game will not be resumed until 30 minutes have passed from the last time lightning was observed or thunder heard. At the 25 minute mark with no lightning observed or thunder heard, the umpires will allow the teams to leave their vehicles and return to the dugouts to make preparations to resume the game.
6. NO CONSIDERATION WILL BE GIVEN TO COMPLETING THE GAME when making decisions regarding halting or resuming the game. The only factor that will be considered is the presence/absence of lightning/thunder/threatening skies.
7. Upon resumption of game activities, each team, when they take the field defensively, will be allowed a small amount of extra time to warm up.
Ridge Baseball Club only permits bats approved by Babe Ruth League Baseball to be used during recreational and tournament trail play. For more information on Babe Ruth's bat rules, click here. For a list of approved bats containing the USA Baseball Marking, please click here.
NOTE: For travel play outside of the Babe Ruth Tournament Trail, Ridge Baseball Club permits players to use bats as authorized by the league or tournament the travel team is playing in.
Ridge Baseball Club maintains Automated External Defibrillators (AED) at the Ridge Baseball Complex and the Lutheran Church Field, which are the two locations maintained by Ridge Baseball Club.
The AED at the RBC Complex is located in the meeting room in the center of the Complex as indicated by the AED signage on the outside of the building. The AED at the Lutheran Church field is located behind the backstop.
All other fields in Bernards Township used by RBC for its programs are owned and maintained by Bernards Township, and, as such, RBC is not able to install AEDs at these fields.