How Wide is Your Home Plate?

(origin unknown)

Some time ago, 4000 baseball coaches attended a large convention. Everyone was excited because the main speaker was John Scolinos. He had spent almost fifty years as a renowned college coach. His college coaching career spanned almost fifty years. He was always in demand as a speaker.

When they introduced him, he received a standing ovation. He had a string around his neck from which home plate hung — a full-sized, stark-white home plate ― complete with black edges. Was this some kind of joke?

Coach Scolinos was well into his speech and he hadn’t mentioned the home plate. And the natives were getting restless. Then finally, he said, “You’re probably wondering why I’m wearing home plate around my neck. The reason I stand before you today is to share with you baseball-people what I’ve learned in my life, what I’ve learned about home plate in my 87 years of life.

To the Little League coaches, he asked, “Do you know how wide home plate is in Little League? Somebody shouted, “Seventeen inches.” That’s right, he said. Then, he added, “It was 17 inches in Babe Ruth’s day too.”

Then he asked, “And you high school coaches, ‘How wide home plate is in your leagues?’” “Seventeen inches,” they said. And he got the same answer from college coaches, minor league professional coaches, and major league coaches.

“You’re all correct,” he said. “It’s seventeen inches, exactly seventeen inches, and it’s always been seventeen inches!”

Addressing the major league coaches, he said, “And what do you do with a big league pitcher who can’t get the ball across the plate, across those seventeen inches?” Hearing nothing, Scolinos shouted, “You send him to Pocatello, don’t you?” There was raucous laughter. The coach continued, “What you don’t do is say to your pitcher, ‘Ah, that’s okay, Jimmy. You can’t hit a 17-inch target? We’ll make it 18 inches, or 19 inches. We’ll make it 20 inches so you have a better chance of hitting the strike zone. If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say 25 inches.’”

“And coaches,” he said, “what should you do when your best player shows up late to practice or misses a practice? Do you hold him accountable? Or do you change the rules to fit him. Do you widen home plate?

The chuckles gradually faded as four thousand coaches grew quiet. Nobody was laughing now. Coach Scolinos said, “The problem is in our homes, in our marriages, in the way we parent our kids, and with our discipline. We don’t teach accountability to our children. There are no consequences for failing to meet standards. We simply widen home plate!”

Then, he mentioned our schools. He said, “Students are not held accountable anymore. Teachers have no power to hold their students accountable. We’ve taken away their ability to control and students have been given power over their teachers. We are widening home plate!”

Next he held up a poster of a church with the cross prominently displayed. And he said, “Churches are no longer being faithful to God’s Word. They tell people what they want to hear instead of telling the truth. And we allow it! The same is true with our government. It no longer exists to serve the people. We allow our elected officials to act in their own self-interests.”

“If I am lucky,” Coach Scolinos concluded, “you will remember one thing from this old coach today. It is this: if we fail to hold ourselves accountable what is right; if we fail to hold our spouses and our children to the same standards; if we are unwilling or unable to provide consequences when they miss the mark, there is only one thing to look forward to.” He paused until there was silence.

And then he held home plate high above his head. He turned it around so that only the backside was visible. The backside was dark black. … “As I was saying, there is only one thing to look forward to: dark days ahead.”

Coach Scolinos died in 2009 at the age of 91, but not before touching the lives of hundreds of players and coaches. He was the best baseball “preacher” of all time. His message was clear: “Coaches, keep your players, your children, your churches, your government, and yourself accountable to those seventeen inches.”