Seventeen inches

[Stormy]

Twenty  years ago, 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 [American Baseball Coaches Association] 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!"

"SEVENTEEN  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. If 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… what do we do when your best player shows up late to practice?  or 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 just 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 iden  home plate! We see our country falling into a dark abyss while we just 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  esponsibilities 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, "We have dark days  ahead!"

Note:  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 now go out there and fix it!

"Don't  widen the plate."
 

[Guest]

[Koach]

Pretty inspiring talk.

[Nan]

That was extremely inspiring, I have a feeling that there are changes afoot.  People in many countries are demanding changes from their churches, educators and politicians and perhaps slowly things will change for the better and for the benefit of our children and grandchildren and the future of the human race.   I hope so !