Widen the plate?

[SkinsJock]

Widen the Plate?

In Nashville , Tennessee , during the first week of January, 1996, more than 4,000 baseball coaches descended upon the Opryland Hotel for the 52nd annual ABCA's convention.

While I waited in line to register with the hotel staff, I heard other more veteran coaches rumbling about the lineup of speakers scheduled to present during the weekend. One name, in particular, kept resurfacing, always with the same sentiment — “John Scolinos is here? Oh, man, worth every penny of my airfare.”

Who is John Scolinos, I wondered. No matter; I was just happy to be there.

In 1996, Coach Scolinos was 78 years old and five years retired from a college coaching career that began in 1948. He shuffled to the stage to an impressive standing ovation, wearing dark polyester pants, a light blue shirt, and a string around his neck from which home plate hung — a full-sized, stark-white home plate. Seriously, I wondered, who is this guy?

After speaking for twenty-five minutes, not once mentioning the prop hanging around his neck, Coach Scolinos appeared to notice the snickering among some of the coaches. Even those who knew Coach Scolinos had to wonder exactly where he was going with this, or if he had simply forgotten about home plate since he’d gotten on stage.Then, finally …“You’re probably all wondering why I’m wearing home plate around my neck,” he said, his voice growing irascible. I laughed along with the others, acknowledging the possibility. “I may be old, but I’m not crazy. 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 78 years.” Several hands went up when Scolinos asked how many Little League coaches were in the room. “Do you know how wide home plate is in Little League?”

After a pause, someone offered, “Seventeen inches?”, more of a question than answer.

“That’s right,” he said. “How about in Babe Ruth’s day? Any Babe Ruth coaches in the house?”Another long pause.

“Seventeen inches?” a guess from another reluctant coach.

“That’s right,” said Scolinos. “Now, how many high school coaches do we have in the room?” Hundreds of hands shot up, as the pattern began to appear. “How wide is home plate in high school baseball?”

“Seventeen inches,” they said, sounding more confident.

“You’re right!” Scolinos barked. “And you college coaches, how wide is home plate in college?”
“Seventeen inches!” we said, in unison.

“Any Minor League coaches here? How wide is home plate in pro ball?”............“Seventeen inches!”

“RIGHT! And in the Major Leagues, how wide home plate is in the Major Leagues?
“Seventeen inches!”

“SEV-EN-TEEN INCHES!” he confirmed, his voice bellowing off the walls. “And what do they do with a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over seventeen inches?” Pause. “They send him to Pocatello !” he hollered, drawing raucous laughter. “What they don’t do is this: they don’t say, ‘Ah, that’s okay, Jimmy. You can’t hit a seventeen-inch target? We’ll make it eighteen inches or nineteen inches. We’ll make it twenty inches so you have a better chance of hitting it. If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say twenty-five inches.'” Pause. “Coaches…” pause, "… what do we do when our best player shows up late to practice? When our team rules forbid facial hair and a guy shows up unshaven? What if he gets caught drinking? Do we hold him accountable? Or do we change the rules to fit him? Do we widen home plate? The chuckles gradually faded as four thousand coaches grew quiet, the fog lifting as the old coach’s message began to unfold. He turned the plate toward himself and, using a Sharpie, began to draw something. When he turned it toward the crowd, point up, a house was revealed, complete with a freshly drawn door and two windows. “This is the problem in our homes today. With our marriages, with the way we parent our kids. With our discipline. We don’t teach accountability to our kids, and there is no consequence for failing to meet standards. We widen the plate!”

Pause. Then, to the point at the top of the house he added a small American flag. “This is the problem in our schools today. The quality of our education is going downhill fast and teachers have been stripped of the tools they need to be successful, and to educate and discipline our young people. We are allowing others to widen home plate! Where is that getting us?”

Silence. He replaced the flag with a Cross. “And this is the problem in the Church, where powerful people in positions of authority have taken advantage of young children, only to have such an atrocity swept under the rug for years. Our church leaders are widening home plate for themselves! And we allow it.”

“And the same is true with our government. Our so called representatives make rules for us that don’t apply to themselves. They take bribes from lobbyists and foreign countries. They no longer serve us. And we allow them to widen home plate and we see our country falling into a dark abyss while we watch.”

I was amazed. At a baseball convention where I expected to learn something about curve balls and bunting and how to run better practices, I had learned something far more valuable. From an old man with home plate strung around his neck, I had learned something about life, about myself, about my own weaknesses and about my responsibilities as a leader. I had to hold myself and others accountable to that which I knew to be right, lest our families, our faith, and our society continue down an undesirable path.

“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 to a higher standard, a standard of what we know to be right; if we fail to hold our spouses and our children to the same standards, if we are unwilling or unable to provide a consequence when they do not meet the standard; and if our schools & churches & our government fail to hold themselves accountable to those they serve, there is but one thing to look forward to …”

With that, he held home plate in front of his chest, turned it around, and revealed its dark black backside, “… 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, including mine. Meeting him at my first ABCA convention kept me returning year after year, looking for similar wisdom and inspiration from other coaches. He is the best clinic speaker the ABCA has ever known because he was so much more than a baseball coach. His message was clear: “Coaches, keep your players—no matter how good they are—your own children, your churches, your government, and most of all, keep yourself at seventeen inches."

And this my friends is what our country has become and what is wrong with it today, and how to fix it.


"Don't widen the plate."

[TexasCowboy]

Sadly Baseball is many ways is regarded as, Boring by widening the plate ultimately they are pushing
for more hits and home run's to make it more exciting to a viewing audience. Personally, I believe it
is fine the way it is but MLB will do anything to boost the attention away from other sports

[DEHog]

Sadly Baseball is many ways is regarded as, Boring by widening the plate ultimately they are pushing
for more hits and home run's to make it more exciting to a viewing audience. Personally, I believe it
is fine the way it is but MLB will do anything to boost the attention away from other sports

[TexasCowboy]

The laughing is just hiding the fact you know I am right about this!!!

the fact Baseball has very little excitement factor to it! only raises
the concern of viewing games, where they'd like to see it be more
like the NFL one way they can do this

is widen the plate allowing hitters a better chance at earning run's
and home run's

[DEHog]

See this is your problem, you wail against the media, and then you read a headline, form a opinion and think you know what you’re talking about. Try READING what was posted, you may learn something….like the article has nothing to do with actually widening the plate!

[SkinsJock]

^^^ what he said .... I mean, you just can't make it up

[TexasCowboy]

See this is your problem, you wail against the media, and then you read a headline, form a opinion and think you know what you’re talking about. Try READING what was posted, you may learn something….like the article has nothing to do with actually widening the plate!

That's called thinking for yourself!! you ought to try it sometimes instead of criticizing those
who aren't attached to the media breast.

so my take is? based upon having watched Baseball several times both live
and via television...I believe it to be a sport that is utterly boring, so it is a
rarity that I actually watch a game let alone pay attention to the teams or
stats that go along with the game

But widening the plate is not being spoken about here to boost the interest
of the sport? LOL that's hilarious, Of course MLB wants excitement at
their games, if you have ever actually spent time in the stands then you'd
know by experience

It's lot of beer drinking, floozy woman attempting to get phone #'s
and a possible drink/night cap after the game. Very little attention
is on the game itself till they hear the crack of the bat which then
somehow sparks the crowd to actually cheer becoming engaged
when the reality is? They spent good money on tickets/travel to
go see a game live

Utilize that sports is supposed to be a place for fun, Where sports
enthusiast's/scholars of the sport come to actually enjoy themselves
so I stand by my comments

Less attention on everything else, more attention on the game
widening the plate is that answer

Next question

[Deadskins]

See this is your problem, you wail against the media, and then you read a headline, form a opinion and think you know what you’re talking about. Try READING what was posted, you may learn something….like the article has nothing to do with actually widening the plate!

Someone needs to look up the definition of "metaphor."

[DEHog]

See this is your problem, you wail against the media, and then you read a headline, form a opinion and think you know what you’re talking about. Try READING what was posted, you may learn something….like the article has nothing to do with actually widening the plate!

Someone needs to look up the definition of "metaphor."

Ha was just getting ready to post that!

[Countertrey]

See this is your problem, you wail against the media, and then you read a headline, form a opinion and think you know what you’re talking about. Try READING what was posted, you may learn something….like the article has nothing to do with actually widening the plate!

Someone needs to look up the definition of "metaphor."

The concrete don't do metaphors. Worse, they have no idea that they have no concept of the message, so they continue to mock those who do. You can't make this up.

[TexasCowboy]

Your right

I don't do metaphors maybe that's because? unlike some...I like to? dig a little deeper
down the rabbit hole, think for myself, Not take everything written/spoken/heard at
an immediate face value never questioning or exploring the realm of possibilities out
there

but concrete? this is not new but it is!! considering that I can't be this hard
cement from which nothing is capable of breaking through. After all concrete
does have it's weak points and can be broken, That is of course if you have
the right equipment to break it's weak spot?

Hmm where I have I heard that before? OH yeah when it's false delusions
of owning me are spread as discredit, as though nothing is ever right in
what I say b/c the media didn't back it up, Or some blogger was doing a
report on it somewhere on the internet

but they think for themselves (according to them) if you believe that?
I got refrigerators to sell Eskimo's at cheap low prices act now time
and quantity are limited

[Countertrey]

[TexasCowboy]

call me concrete all you like, but I'd rather be concrete than controlled

[DEHog]

call me concrete all you like, but I'd rather be concrete than controlled

How bout owed!!

[TexasCowboy]

How bout speaking English? now back to the topic at hand shall we

[DEHog]

How bout speaking English? now back to the topic at hand shall we

IT'S A METAPHOR!!!!

[TexasCowboy]

OK good for you

[DEHog]

OK good for you

You finally got it!!

[Countertrey]

OK good for you

You finally got it!!

Do you think he knows?

[DEHog]

OK good for you

You finally got it!!

Do you think he knows?

[TexasCowboy]

Knows how full of it you people really are? known that for the last 13 years

[DEHog]

[TexasCowboy]

see above case closed

[Hooligan]

[TexasCowboy]

That should read

The level of brainwashed stupidity is to damn high