Installing a New Home Plate

Installing a new plate can be challenging.  At higher levels of play it is not uncommon to call in a surveyor to assist in aligning a new plate.  Home plate is where the entire layout of the field begins.  If the plate is off center or twisted, foul poles, bases, the mound, etc will be out of alignment.  At the college, high school and recreational levels a surveyor is not needed.  How does this work?  Let's go through it step by step:

Step 1:  Run string lines from the foul poles through the existing home plate.  Carry this string past the plate.

Step 2: Next, run a string from the apex of home plate through the middle of the pitchers rubber and the second base anchor.

Step 3:  All three strings are set, let pull out the existing plate.

As you can see, this plate was twisted slightly.  Also, make sure all sting line are tight.  Here is the completed plate.

Notice the new mound clay around the plate.  The next steps are to check the bases and the pitchers rubber for the correct distances and alignment.   That we be another post for another day.  As you can see, NEVER remove a plate without installing a new plate at the same time.

Thanks to Marian University for the assistance in replacing their plate on the softball field.

To learn more about Marian Athletics, click HERE.

Click HERE to see the proper distances for baseball and softball fields, courtesy of Diamond Pro.

Go to j-dturf.com to learn more about J&D Turf.

Play on!

--Jamie

@JamieMehringer