Home Plate

Happy New Year! Very eager for the beginning of the 2014 baseball season. On that note, isn't great that this sport is not split into two years, like all other major sports? There is something beautiful about being able to bookmark each season in one year.

For this week's post, we will delve back into an official MLB baseball rule that was recently brought to my attention.

1.05 Home base shall be marked by a five-sided slab of whitened rubber. It shall be a 17-inch square with two of the corners removed so that one edge is 17 inches long, two adjacent sides are 8 1/2 inches and the remaining two sides are 12 inches and set at an angle to make a point. It shall be set in the ground with the point at the intersection of the lines extending from home base to first base and to third base; with the 17-inch edge facing the pitcher’s plate, and the two 12-inch edges coinciding with the first and third base lines. The top edges of home base shall be beveled and the base shall be fixed in the ground level with the ground surface

That looks something like this:

The rule doesn't explicitly state that the angle between the two sides that are 12 inches in length has to be a 90 degree, right angle, but it does state that baselines at first base and third base should be 90 degree, as well as at second base, thus necessitating that this angle be 90 degree at home plate. This is IMPOSSIBLE!

Thinking back to our geometry days, the Pythagorean theorem tells us that a² + b² = c². Here, "a" equals 12 inches, "b" equals 12 inches, and "c" equals 17 inches. This is where it falls apart. 12² + 12² = 288, but 17²  = 289! It just doesn't work!

It's definitely amusing to think that the official MLB rule book specifies a home plate shape that is impossible!