After 44 years of coaching baseball, John Scolinos retired. In 1996, he asked the following questions to more than 4,000 baseball coaches at the 52nd annual American Baseball Coaches Association conference.
How wide is home plate in Little League baseball? Do you know how wide home plate is in high school, college and the major leagues?
In case you don’t know, it’s 17 inches.
“Seventeen inches!” he confirmed. “And what do they do with a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over 17 inches? They send him to Pocatello [Idaho]! What they don’t do is this: They don’t say, ‘Ah, that’s OK, Jimmy. If 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 it. If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say 25 inches.’
“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?” Scolinos continued.