17 inches

My cousin recently sent me a great article about a baseball coach named John Scolinos. He started coaching in 1948 and was the guest speaker at a youth baseball conference in Nashville, TN in 1996. At the time of his speech, he was 78 years old.

In front of thousands of coaches, Mr. Scolinos walked to the podium and began his presentation. Hanging around his neck was a home plate! A real home plate with the pointed side down!

He spoke for awhile without even mentioning this unusual prop and then asked if anyone knew the width of home plate? Someone from the audience yelled out, “Seventeen inches”.

“That’s right” he replied.

He then asked for all of the Little League coaches to stand and he asked them, “How wide is home plate?” They replied, “Seventeen inches”.

He asked for the Babe Ruth coaches to stand. “How wide is home plate?” he asked. They replied, “Seventeen inches”.

He continued with the high school coaches. The same answer came back. “Seventeen inches”.

Next the college coaches had a turn. They replied, “Seventeen inches.”

Minor League coaches replied, “Seventeen inches” as well.

Finally, the major league coaches had a chance to answer. And they did. “Seventeen inches.”

Four thousand coaches suddenly grew quiet and waited to hear what was next.

John Scolinos then said that much of what he learned about life is from home plate.

He said that the problem with our schools is that teachers have been stripped away of the tools they need to be successful. He said that they are no longer able to educate the way they want, nor are they able to discipline the students appropriately. He said, “We are letting others widen home plate! He asked, “Where is that getting us?”

He said that in most institutions, authorities are widening home plate, some for their own advantage.

He said that all people in leadership roles must hold themselves and those around them accountable to the right values. He said, “If I am lucky, you will remember this 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 standard, if we are unwilling to provide a consequence when they do not meet the standard; and if schools, churches and government fail to hold themselves to those they serve, there is one thing to look forward to…

With that, he held up home plate in front of his chest, turned it around and revealed its dark black backside and said, “Dark days ahead”.

The old coach lived another 13 years and touched many lives during that time not only teaching about baseball but also teaching life lessons.

I am not sure about a lot of things but I do know that companies, work units, families and churches must be built on solid rocks. And those rocks are values. In my career, I repeated these values over and over again:

• Treat others the way you would want to be treated.

• Treat every patient like a loved family member.

• Always do the right thing.

These fundamental values or rocks were all the same size. In fact, the last time I looked, they were each about seventeen inches.

Thanks for reading this.

With a goal to “help the next one in line”, Glen Cavallo, a 30+ year healthcare executive has chosen to share the many lessons he has learned with others. Glen does this by serving as a coach/advisor to leaders at all levels of organizations, as a board member and as he presents inspirational speeches at regional, national, annual and awards meetings.