Home Plate in Baseball

Video Transcript

"BEN GRAHAM: Now here we are at home plate. I'm standing in the batter's box from a right-handed batter's perspective. The box will just be a little box drawn in chalk around me, just like I'm just drawing here with the edge of the bat, gives the batter an idea of where to stand. You want to take your stance as you get into the box. You're looking right down at the pitcher right where you are. You're my pitcher right now. I actually like to stand just a couple of inches off the plate. I like to crowd the plate a little bit, which makes a lot of pitchers mad and makes for the game a lot of fun most times. The plate is divided into a couple of different sections here. You have--from a right-handed batter's perspective, you have the inside corner, which is this right here; then you have the outside corner, and you have right down the middle. You'll hear this term a lot when people are telling where the pitcher has thrown the ball. Now, if you flip over to the left hand side, it's the exact opposite. That is the outside corner, and this is the inside corner--the inside corner obviously being closest to the batter; the outside corner being furthest away. You'll also have a catcher who's going to take a position right here behind the plate, and he'll stand giving the pitcher an idea of where to throw the ball. Sometimes, he is going to set up inside, which means you're going to line up off of the inside corner to a right-handed batter. Or he may set up outside. He may set up high, especially if you're looking to do a "pitch out" situation, which is when a runner is trying to steal from first base, so you would take it high and make the throw down to second base. But, generally, the catcher is going to occupy this central position, giving the pitcher a good solid target of where to throw. This is where--if the pitcher's mound is where all of the action begins, this is where all of the action continues. When the ball is pitched, the batter is going to make the decision. If it's an inside pitch, he's going to hit it here, taking it to the left field side. If it's an outside pitch, he's going to hit it here, taking it to the off field, the right field side. And that's how the game of baseball begins. It starts with the pitcher's mound, continues through home plate, and now we'll see where he goes after that in our next segment."