01-26-2017
Dear Mark:
"DON'T
WIDEN THE PLATE" might be something to include in your newsletter.
None
of the Retired Delta Pilots have forgotten or forgiven Delta Airlines for
stealing their unqualified retirement. "DON'T WIDEN THE
PLATE" is a good read prior to writing your story to someone who has
already told you he cares about you and he loves veterans.
PRESIDENT
DONALD TRUMP
THE
WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON,
D.C. 20500
I have
spoken with several people who have used this address to correspond with
President Obama and they received responses. I'm writing my letter right now!
It's certainly worth a try!
BEST,
LARRY
RODAMMER
Don’t Widen the Plate!
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 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. 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 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?” came a guess from another reluctant coach.
“That’s right,” said
Scolinos. “Now, how many high school coaches do we have in the room?” A bunch
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 is home plate in the Major Leagues?”
“Seventeen inches!”
“SEVEN-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. 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 …”
Pause.
”… what do we do when
our best player shows up late to practice? 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 simply, 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 and we see our
country falling into a dark abyss while we watch.”
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. 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,
ALL, at seventeen inches.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: dwskjerven@aol.com
Date: 1/31/2017 8:16:52 PM
Subject: Skiing Beaver Creek
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