Sliding home once meant running into an iron plate

Today’s question: In baseball we have first, second and third “base.” Why is it home “plate” and not home base even though we say “touch all the bases”? You people seem to be thinking about baseball quite a bit lately. Considering how many other things there are to think about right now, thinking about baseball seems to me to be a pretty good idea.

Do you think President Trump or other world leaders think about baseball? Maybe they should. It would give them something else to do other than annoying the rest of us.

Anyway, that’s a pretty good question about home plate. I never thought of that before.

It turns out the reason home plate is called home plate is that because it originally was a plate — an iron plate.

Back in 1857 the rules of the game called for home to be a round plate of iron painted white.

The next year it became a 12inch-by-12-inch square iron plate and in 1872 the plate was rotated so the point faced the pitcher.

That was all well and good until the 1880s, when sliding came into fashion and players realized they weren’t having much fun sliding into a raised piece of iron with sharp corners.

In 1885 home became a white, rubber 12-inch-by-12-inch square but the plate name stuck. In 1900 the five-sided white shape was introduced with the widest part facing the mound to give the pitcher a better target.

Finally, in 1936 the edges of the plate were beveled and we had the plate we have today and thus shall it ever be.