An excellent article to read from beginning to end. Twenty plus 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 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. 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 widen 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 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, "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 playersno matter how good they areyour 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."

http://www.sperrybaseballlife.com/stay-at-17-inches/

Amen to this.

I agree with this point of view of accountability, but the challenge of solving that is rooted in the why or how did we get here.

Many will criticize you. Many among those will say this thinking leads to a reverse issue, a virtual shrinking of the plate. And btw strike zones are vertical too. What about "tolerance" and "inclusiveness" and "fairness" for the tall and the short so to speak? And what about "inherent" disadvantages, handicaps like learning disabilities, language barriers, and lack of opportunities to "practice and learn on a level playing field?" And who are the players , Americans or every human?

So In my opinion the argument today is about birthright advantages. It is about accountability, but forcing accountability in "that" context (I do not agree btw with this argunent).

So if you are born into "more" you have a duty to widen or adjust the plate. For example, America is "rich" so we "must" lean toward sharing it with the world or we are deemed racist intolerant xenpophobic deplorable people on our way to naziville. If you are at the top 1% financially you owe more. If you are white and male...you...you get the picture.

So a simple idea like let's enforce a rule, in today's information Google charged, everything is a global issue not a US or neighborhood or family issue world, is not so easy to unify around and hence, "fix." It should be as straightforward as the coach describes. I uphold that point of view, but frankly it sucks to try and make it happen today .

Whew, I thought you guys were talking about me behind my back again.

That's a great story of a presentation, owning an audience and telling a story about standards.

As a metaphor and not being there to hear it in person, I have two replies:

A) Despite home plate being 17" wide, how a strike is called is humanly determined with guidelines, but the idea of what defines the strike zone is and has been flexible. Some leagues or umps call strikes and balls differently. upsetof86 eludes to this by mentioned the vertical strike zone, which I always took as knees and shoulders...but who calls that way for real and it's relative to all batters.

B) Baseball is an American invention played by many nations...but it's not universal. Most of the world thinks home plate is what you eat off at home. Standards are a great thing to have but like the strike zone, standards change. I'm NOT suggesting corruption is okay, or lying, or taking shortcuts that cheapen everything including life itself... but standards do change, and how to reach those standards change... like admissions to the Univeristy of California Berkeley. There's a thread here about it...and if you could get into day. One poster sort of nailed it, likely most would still get admitted but the standards changed.

So...sounds like a great presentation and standards are good to have...but life is not baseball as much as we'd love to live by its guidance...lots of people still get beamed in the nuts.

Another Bear said:

---

That's a great story of a presentation, owning an audience and telling a story about standards.

As a metaphor and not being there to hear it in person, I have two replies:

A) Despite home plate being 17" wide, how a strike is called is humanly determined with guidelines, but the idea of what defines the strike zone is and has been flexible. Some leagues or umps call strikes and balls differently. upsetof86 eludes to this by mentioned the vertical strike zone, which I always took as knees and shoulders...but who calls that way for real and it's relative to all batters.

B) Baseball is an American invention played by many nations...but it's not universal. Most of the world thinks home plate is what you eat off at home. Standards are a great thing to have but like the strike zone, standards change. I'm NOT suggesting corruption is okay, or lying, or taking shortcuts that cheapen everything including life itself... but standards do change, and how to reach those standards change... like admissions to the Univeristy of California Berkeley. There's a thread here about it...and if you could get into day. One poster sort of nailed it, likely most would still get admitted but the standards changed.

So...sounds like a great presentation and standards are good to have...but life is not baseball as much as we'd love to live by its guidance...lots of people still get beamed in the nuts.

---

I agree that this is a moving presentation and one that resonates with a lot today (read Jonathan Haidt on this issue in higher education). However, Another Bear's point here is a crucial one. In the 50's and 60's homosexuality was punishable by death in Nevada and some southern states. Now it is legal for gays to get married. Neighborhoods in most of the country were legally segregated, now that is no longer the law. We need to teach our children to have standards, but at the same time to be flexible and be able to adapt to changing norms and conditions. "In my day..." no longer works as a criterion.

RealBear65 said:

---

An excellent article to read from beginning to end. Twenty plus 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 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. 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 widen 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 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, "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 playersno matter how good they areyour 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."

http://www.sperrybaseballlife.com/stay-at-17-inches/

If he had put other symbols, in addition to the cross, to symbolize his place of worship, wouldn't that have been making the "plate" more relevant, a more important 17 inches? Or, is including anything other than a cross "widening the plate?"

---

mbBear said:

---

RealBear65 said:

---

An excellent article to read from beginning to end. Twenty plus 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 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. 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 widen 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 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, "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 playersno matter how good they areyour 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."

http://www.sperrybaseballlife.com/stay-at-17-inches/

If he had put other symbols, in addition to the cross, to symbolize his place of worship, wouldn't that have been making the "plate" more relevant, a more important 17 inches? Or, is including anything other than a cross "widening the plate?"

---

---

He used a cross as an analogy. it made sense. It was a great story but you have to bring something else into it. *** is wrong with you?

UrsaMajor said:

---

Another Bear said:

---

That's a great story of a presentation, owning an audience and telling a story about standards.

As a metaphor and not being there to hear it in person, I have two replies:

A) Despite home plate being 17" wide, how a strike is called is humanly determined with guidelines, but the idea of what defines the strike zone is and has been flexible. Some leagues or umps call strikes and balls differently. upsetof86 eludes to this by mentioned the vertical strike zone, which I always took as knees and shoulders...but who calls that way for real and it's relative to all batters.

B) Baseball is an American invention played by many nations...but it's not universal. Most of the world thinks home plate is what you eat off at home. Standards are a great thing to have but like the strike zone, standards change. I'm NOT suggesting corruption is okay, or lying, or taking shortcuts that cheapen everything including life itself... but standards do change, and how to reach those standards change... like admissions to the Univeristy of California Berkeley. There's a thread here about it...and if you could get into day. One poster sort of nailed it, likely most would still get admitted but the standards changed.

So...sounds like a great presentation and standards are good to have...but life is not baseball as much as we'd love to live by its guidance...lots of people still get beamed in the nuts.

---

I agree that this is a moving presentation and one that resonates with a lot today (read Jonathan Haidt on this issue in higher education). However, Another Bear's point here is a crucial one. In the 50's and 60's homosexuality was punishable by death in Nevada and some southern states. Now it is legal for gays to get married. Neighborhoods in most of the country were legally segregated, now that is no longer the law. We need to teach our children to have standards, but at the same time to be flexible and be able to adapt to changing norms and conditions. "In my day..." no longer works as a criterion.

---

Ursa, as you know we don't align politically, but I can say I agree with almost everything you say except maybe the implication of "In my day..." as to meaning. I have lived the very times of which you speak. I recall the details and many more of the times, and being moderately conservative, was abhorrent of same at the time and even moreso looking back now. For the most part, and thankfully so, most people grew out of the standards you mention. Unfortunately, not all. But society in general has evolved because of our flexibility, and has made great strides forward in the issues you point out. Not all the way there but tremendously better than back then.

Believing that there is an assumption that those who believe as do I want to keep things rigidly the same is just wrong. Equally wrong is that many of that ilk wish to stop progress in all areas of tolerance (please read one of the posts above with the vitriol), or somehow think the actions you mention were right then. It is a misrepresentation at best, unless you believe all Republicans are "white supremicists" which is an equally narrow suggestion.

One of the big things "in this day" that worries me is the rigidity of thought both on the extremes of left and right. A perceived "hatred". In the late last century, Republicans did not like much about Clinton at the time. Disagreed with him. Conversely, Democrats with Reagan. But nowadays, and this was pre-Trump too (who evokes emotions in everyone) there is a hatred on both sides. There is an intolerance of a different sort that is creeping in. I worry.

OdontoBear66 said:

---

UrsaMajor said:

---

Another Bear said:

---

That's a great story of a presentation, owning an audience and telling a story about standards.

As a metaphor and not being there to hear it in person, I have two replies:

A) Despite home plate being 17" wide, how a strike is called is humanly determined with guidelines, but the idea of what defines the strike zone is and has been flexible. Some leagues or umps call strikes and balls differently. upsetof86 eludes to this by mentioned the vertical strike zone, which I always took as knees and shoulders...but who calls that way for real and it's relative to all batters.

B) Baseball is an American invention played by many nations...but it's not universal. Most of the world thinks home plate is what you eat off at home. Standards are a great thing to have but like the strike zone, standards change. I'm NOT suggesting corruption is okay, or lying, or taking shortcuts that cheapen everything including life itself... but standards do change, and how to reach those standards change... like admissions to the Univeristy of California Berkeley. There's a thread here about it...and if you could get into day. One poster sort of nailed it, likely most would still get admitted but the standards changed.

So...sounds like a great presentation and standards are good to have...but life is not baseball as much as we'd love to live by its guidance...lots of people still get beamed in the nuts.

---

I agree that this is a moving presentation and one that resonates with a lot today (read Jonathan Haidt on this issue in higher education). However, Another Bear's point here is a crucial one. In the 50's and 60's homosexuality was punishable by death in Nevada and some southern states. Now it is legal for gays to get married. Neighborhoods in most of the country were legally segregated, now that is no longer the law. We need to teach our children to have standards, but at the same time to be flexible and be able to adapt to changing norms and conditions. "In my day..." no longer works as a criterion.

---

Ursa, as you know we don't align politically, but I can say I agree with almost everything you say except maybe the implication of "In my day..." as to meaning. I have lived the very times of which you speak. I recall the details and many more of the times, and being moderately conservative, was abhorrent of same at the time and even moreso looking back now. For the most part, and thankfully so, most people grew out of the standards you mention. Unfortunately, not all. But society in general has evolved because of our flexibility, and has made great strides forward in the issues you point out. Not all the way there but tremendously better than back then.

Believing that there is an assumption that those who believe as do I want to keep things rigidly the same is just wrong. Equally wrong is that many of that ilk wish to stop progress in all areas of tolerance (please read one of the posts above with the vitriol), or somehow think the actions you mention were right then. It is a misrepresentation at best, unless you believe all Republicans are "white supremicists" which is an equally narrow suggestion.

One of the big things "in this day" that worries me is the rigidity of thought both on the extremes of left and right. A perceived "hatred". In the late last century, Republicans did not like much about Clinton at the time. Disagreed with him. Conversely, Democrats with Reagan. But nowadays, and this was pre-Trump too (who evokes emotions in everyone) there is a hatred on both sides. There is an intolerance of a different sort that is creeping in. I worry.

---

Agreed. This was just posted in off-topic:

"The fact that the court of public opinion is divided on this is a damning indictment on lack of education and just how angry and uninformed the red masses are."

This is how the poster who posted the above characterizes those who disagree with him. He is hardly alone.

Odonto:

We don't disagree here in the least (which, btw, makes you a moderate conservative that I'd love to have lengthy discussions with; I suspect we'd both learn a great deal). What I meant by the "in my day" comment was a reference to those who claim that the past was always better and that society has gone unidimensionally downhill since the 50's ( or 80's, or 19th century, or whenever). We have evolved and changed--much for the better, but also for the worse. And for the record, I fully agree that the rigidity and polarity of present day is a worrying trend.

Ncsf said:

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mbBear said:

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RealBear65 said:

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An excellent article to read from beginning to end. Twenty plus 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 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. 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 widen 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 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, "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 playersno matter how good they areyour 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."

http://www.sperrybaseballlife.com/stay-at-17-inches/

If he had put other symbols, in addition to the cross, to symbolize his place of worship, wouldn't that have been making the "plate" more relevant, a more important 17 inches? Or, is including anything other than a cross "widening the plate?"

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He used a cross as an analogy. it made sense. It was a great story but you have to bring something else into it. *** is wrong with you?
An "analogy" of what? Its a comment that the plate remains relevant and "in tact" as long as there is worship? So, that "plate" maintains its integrity as long as there is faith? Will any faith be acceptable? What about faith is changing the plate?
I didn't bring absolutely anything to the story: he brought religion as part of maintaining "his plate." I am simply asking interpretation. I should read that line and take what away from it, NOT what am I bringing to it.

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upsetof86 said:

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I agree with this point of view of accountability, but the challenge of solving that is rooted in the why or how did we get here.

Many will criticize you. Many among those will say this thinking leads to a reverse issue, a virtual shrinking of the plate. And btw strike zones are vertical too. What about "tolerance" and "inclusiveness" and "fairness" for the tall and the short so to speak? And what about "inherent" disadvantages, handicaps like learning disabilities, language barriers, and lack of opportunities to "practice and learn on a level playing field?" And who are the players , Americans or every human?

So In my opinion the argument today is about birthright advantages. It is about accountability, but forcing accountability in "that" context (I do not agree btw with this argunent).

So if you are born into "more" you have a duty to widen or adjust the plate. For example, America is "rich" so we "must" lean toward sharing it with the world or we are deemed racist intolerant xenpophobic deplorable people on our way to naziville. If you are at the top 1% financially you owe more. If you are white and male...you...you get the picture.

So a simple idea like let's enforce a rule, in today's information Google charged, everything is a global issue not a US or neighborhood or family issue world, is not so easy to unify around and hence, "fix." It should be as straightforward as the coach describes. I uphold that point of view, but frankly it sucks to try and make it happen today .

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Maybe, if you enforce a rule in today's environment, knowing it is right, one other person will notice and follow you.

Something tells me that the 'ol baseball coach would disagree with the Supreme Court decision in the Casey Martin case