17 Inches

If you are unfamiliar with the story of Coach John Scolinos’ speech at the 1996 American Baseball Coaches Association Convention, then prepare to get your head rocked with some wisdom.

John Scolinos was a Los Angeles native, who coached for Pepperdine University from 1946-1960 and then went on to coach at California State Polytechnic University Pomona from 1962-1991. During Scolinos’ time at Cal Poly Pomona, he led the Broncos to six conference championships and three Division II National Championships in 1976, 1980, and 1983. Scolinos would be inducted into the American Association of Collegiate Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1974. Coach John Scolinos retired in 1991 at the age of 73.

In 1996, at 78 years old and five years retired from coaching, Coach John Scolinos was invited to speak at the 52nd annual American Baseball Coaches Association Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. The story of his speech was told by a coach early in his career named Chris Sperry, who was attending his first ever ABCA convention.

John Scolinos
Photo cred. www.cpp.edu

When Sperry arrived in Nashville, he recalls hearing a specific name being brought up nearly everywhere he went; that name was John Scolinos. Although, at the time, Sperry had no idea who this man was or the impact he was soon going to make. Sperry assumed that he had to be of some importance since he seemed to be renowned by everyone at this convention.

Scolinos was scheduled to speak at 1:00pm, which was a time that most coaches would spend at lunch, socializing and catching up with old friends and colleagues. But not this time. Sperry recalls being confused as he looked down at his itinerary and discovered the convention to be extremely crowded during this 1 o'clock lunch hour. “1 PM John Scolinos, Cal Poly Pomona. It was the man whose name I had heard buzzing around the lobby two days earlier. Could he be the reason that all 4,000 coaches had returned, early, to the convention hall? Wow, I thought, this person must really be good. I had no idea.”1

Coach Scolinos walked out with a home plate hanging from his neck in a Flavor Flav kind of way. With the crowd mumbling with confusion, Scolinos began his speech by acknowledging the odd choice of jewelry hanging around his neck. Immediately after, Scolinos asked how many Little League coaches were in the room. To no surprise, several hands went up in the air with little hesitation. “Do you know how wide home plate is in Little League?” After a pause, someone offered, “Seventeen inches.”1 Scolinos directed this question to all the high school coaches in the room, then moved on to the collegiate coaches, then minor and major league coaches. The answer remained the same throughout. Seventeen inches. No matter what league you play in, home plate is always seventeen inches.

Coach Scolinos went on to ask the crowd what happens to Big League pitchers who can’t throw the ball over seventeen inches. He answered his own question by saying, “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.”1 The crowd chuckled in confusion trying to understand where Coach Scolinos was going with this analogy.

“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?”1

The room was silent.

Coach Scolinos continued on with this idea by replacing accountability in baseball with accountability in our homes, schools, and our churches. His message was simple: do not widen home plate for your players, your families, or yourselves. Whether a situation involves discipline, expectations, rules, or whatever the case may be, everyone needs to be held to the same standard.

Ever since Coach Scolinos gave this speech, the story of seventeen inches has quietly been passed down. Most recently, Jason Garrett, head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, used “17”” as their 2016 training camp slogan. When asked about it, Sean Lee responded,“It's about standards. It's about all of us living up to certain standards every single day. Working extremely hard every day, understanding how much of a blessing it is to play for the Cowboys and trying to take advantage of that opportunity.”2

Jason Garrett and Scolinos family

Photo cred: sportsday.dallasnews.com

That day in Nashville, Tennessee, 21 years ago, Coach John Scolinos used his platform at an ABCA Convention to spread the word about the importance of keeping consistent standards, keeping your home plate at seventeen inches for everyone, including yourself. His message changed the perspective of 4,000 coaches that day. They showed up expecting to learn the new secret to baseball, but in turn, received something much, much greater.

I wanted to share this story because I feel that the simple message Coach Scolinos gave can have such a powerful impact in our world. His message has impacted my life personally by changing my perspective on leadership and how to go about my business. Of course we all know about accountability but what we typically do is forget to be consistent with how we react. It’s critical to have consistency in a leadership position because the moment you differ from your standards, is the moment you start to lose respect from those who you lead. Home plate can serve as a symbol in more than just the game of baseball. My doormat back home is a home plate and every morning when I walk out the front door, I step onto that house shaped rug, and it reminds me to hold myself between 17 inches. No more, no less.

References:

1Sperry, C. (2015, December 9). STAY AT 17 INCHES [Web log post]. Retrieved March 9, 2017, from http://www.sperrybaseballlife.com/stay-at-17-inches/

2 Machota, J. (2016, August 08). 17 inches? What's up with the Cowboys' new slogan? Retrieved March 09, 2017, from http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/dallas-cowboys/cowboys/2016/08/08/cowboys-new-17-inches-slogan-jason-garrett-accountability