17 INCHES

[KLJ77]

There's a lot of baseball fans on this site, so you may (or may not have) seen or heard this before, but it's a great speech in ethics and accountability. This speech was given by Coach Scolinos back in 1996 at the Opryland Hotel during a ABCA convention. With the way the world situation is today, I'm afraid we're a bit too late, because, for the past decade, too many evil entities and diabolical leaders kept changing the size of home plate from 17 inches to accommodate those who couldn't hit the target of life.

Here is a video of Coach Scolinos giving the same speech back in 1986, if you have desire to watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b78EF3cfZ-8

The 17 Inches part starts at around the 13:20 mark, but the entire 26 minute speech is worth listening to. The following is a Reader's Digest version of his speech written by an unknown person.

17 inches

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 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 the heck is John Scolinos, I wondered. Well, in 1996 Coach Scolinos was 78 years old
and five years retired from a college coaching career that began in 1948. No matter, I was
just happy to be there.

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. Pointed side down.

Seriously, I wondered, who in the heck 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. Or maybe you think I
escaped from Camarillo State Hospital,” he said, his voice growing irascible. I laughed along
with the others, acknowledging the possibility.

No,” he continued, “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 question than answer.

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

Another long pause.

“Seventeen inches?” came 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 a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over these
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, Bobby. 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 throwing the ball over 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? What do we do if he
violates curfew? What if he uses drugs? 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.

Then 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….to educate and
discipline our young people. We are allowing others to widen home plate! Where is that
getting us?

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!

I was amazed. At a baseball convention where I expected to learn something about curveballs 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 and churches and 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, and most of all, keep yourself at seventeen inches.

He was, indeed, worth the airfare.

[FRJ]

There's a lot of baseball fans on this site,

Good post, KLJ77.

[rea1eye]

Good post. Also,very well written.

Bob

[bestgear]

Love it Ken, thank you for sharing.

[KLJ77]

Thanks, FRJ, Rea1eye, and Tom

Glad you enjoyed the story.

[treefarmer]

A very good read indeed, thanks Ken!
My wife shared this story with me several years ago, we found the Coach's words to be very accurate as we followed our son as he played baseball from T-ball through 2 years of JUCO baseball.
Treefarmer

[KLJ77]

Thanks, Philip...Glad you enjoyed the read again.