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’s convention.<\/p>\n
While I waited in line to register with the hotel staff, I heard other more veteran coaches rumbling about the line-up of speakers scheduled to present during the weekend. One name, in particular, kept resurfacing, always with the same sentiment \u2014 \u201cJohn Scolinos is here? Oh, man, worth every penny of my airfare.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who is John Scolinos, I wondered. No matter; I was just happy to be there.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 a full-sized, stark-white home plate.<\/p>\n
Seriously, I wondered who is this Guy?<\/p>\n
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\u2019d gotten on stage.<\/p>\n
Then, finally …\u201cYou\u2019re probably all wondering why I\u2019m wearing home plate around my neck,\u201d he said, his voice growing irascible.<\/p>\n
I laughed along with the others, acknowledging the possibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cI may be old, but I\u2019m not crazy. The reason I stand before you today is to share with you baseball people what I\u2019ve learned in my life, what I\u2019ve learned about home plate in my 78 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several hands went up when Scolinos asked how many Little League coaches were in the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know how wide home plate is in Little League?\u201d<\/p>\n
After a pause, someone offered, \u201cSeventeen inches?\u201d, more of a question than answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d he said \u201cHow about in Babe Ruth\u2019s day? Any Babe Ruth coaches in the house?\u201d Another long pause \u201cSeventeen inches?\u201d a guess from another reluctant coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d said Scolinos. \u201cNow, how many high school coaches do we have in the room?\u201d<\/p>\n
Hundreds of hands shot up, as the pattern began to appear. \u201cHow wide is home plate in high school baseball?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSeventeen inches,\u201d they said, sounding more confident.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re right!\u201d Scolinos barked. \u201cAnd you college coaches, how wide is home plate in college?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSeventeen inches!\u201d we said, in unison.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny Minor League coaches here? How wide is home plate in pro ball?\u201d…………\u201cSeventeen inches!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRIGHT!\u00a0 And in the Major Leagues, how wide home plate is in the Major Leagues?<\/p>\n
\u201cSeventeen inches!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSEV-EN-TEEN INCHES!\u201d he confirmed, his voice bellowing off the walls. \u201cAnd what do they do with a Big League pitcher who can\u2019t throw the ball over seventeen inches?\u201d Pause. \u201cThey send him to Pocatello !\u201d he hollered, drawing raucous laughter. \u201cWhat they don\u2019t do is this: they don\u2019t say, \u2018Ah, that\u2019s okay, Jimmy. If you can\u2019t hit a seventeen-inch target?\u00a0 We\u2019ll make it eighteen inches or nineteen inches. We\u2019ll make it twenty inches so you have a better chance of hitting it. If you can\u2019t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say twenty-five inches.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Pause. \u201cCoaches… 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?”<\/p>\n
The chuckles gradually faded as four thousand coaches grew quiet, the fog lifting as the old coach\u2019s message began to unfold.<\/p>\n
He turned the plate toward himself and, using a Sharpie, began to draw something.<\/p>\n
When he turned it toward the crowd, point up, a house was revealed, complete with a freshly drawn door and two windows.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the problem in our homes today. With our marriages, with the way we parent our kids. With our discipline.<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t teach accountability to our kids, and there is no consequence for failing to meet standards. We just widen the plate!\u201d<\/p>\n
Pause.<\/p>\n
Then, to the point at the top of the house he added a small American flag.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the problem in our schools today. The\u00a0quality 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?\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
He replaced the flag with a Cross. \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the same is true with our government. Our so called representatives make rules for us that don\u2019t apply to themselves. They take bribes from lobbyists and foreign countries. They no longer serve us. And we allow them to widen home plate! We see our country falling into a dark abyss while we just watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0responsibilities as a leader. I had to hold myself and others accountable to that which I knew to be right, lest our fam ilies, our faith, and our society continue down an undesirable path.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I am lucky,\u201d Coach Scolinos concluded, \u201cyou 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\u00a0they 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 …\u201d<\/p>\n
With that, he held home plate in front of his chest, turned it around, and revealed its dark black backside, \u201c…We have dark days ahead!.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Meeting him at my first ABCA convention kept me returning year after year, looking for similar wisdom and inspiration from other coaches.<\/p>\n
He is the best clinic speaker the ABCA has ever known because he was so much more than a baseball coach.<\/p>\n
His message was clear: \u201cCoaches, keep your players\u2014no matter how good they are\u2014your own children, your churches, your government, and most of all, keep yourself at seventeen inches.”<\/p>\n
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!<\/p>\n
“Don’t widen the plate.”<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are notions so foolish that only an intellectual will believe them.\u201d — George Orwell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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’s convention. While I waited in line to register with the hotel staff, I heard other more veteran coaches rumbling about the line-up of speakers scheduled to present … <\/p>\n