Baseball is full of fun trivia. One trivia question I recently ran into was about the measurements of home plate, but in terms of using a baseball as a measurement instead of inches. Even though I have seen a home plate hundreds of times in my life, I never really thought about how big it was. So I took some baseball to a local ballpark and measured it out myself. How many baseballs wide is home plate?
Home plate is six baseballs wide. While home plate is 17 inches wide, the diameter of a baseball is slightly less than 3 inches. So six baseballs easily fit across the width of home plate.
In addition to measuring the width of home plate by using baseballs, I also measured the length of home plate using baseballs. Keep reading to find out everything you ever wanted to know about how big home plate is in terms of using baseballs as a tool for measurement.
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The Width of Home Plate is 6 Baseballs
I had some used baseballs I could use in my quest to find how many baseballs fit across home plate. So I took a bucket of used baseballs to a local ballpark and did some measurements.
I found that six baseballs easily fit across the width of home plate (measuring in the direction from one batter’s box to the other). I was not able to place any additional baseballs across home plate without those baseballs extending beyond the width of home plate.
In fact, six baseballs appeared to be the perfect number of baseballs to use. While six baseballs were lined up, it looked like they perfectly met the edges of home plate.
While the width of home plate is 17 inches, the diameter of a baseball is just under 3 inches. So it appears this math works out perfectly where six baseballs can fit across home plate.
The Length of Home Plate is 6 Baseballs
I also decided to take my used baseballs and measure how long home plate was from front to back.
I found that home plate is six baseballs long when measured from front to back (in the direction from the pitcher’s mound to the catcher’s box). It appeared as though seven baseballs would have been too many and six baseballs was just enough.
According to the MLB, home plate should be a 17-inch square. So it makes sense that the length of home plate is the same as the width of home plate – six baseballs.
It Takes About 34-36 Baseballs to Cover Home Plate
After we know that home plate is 6 baseballs in width and 6 baseballs in length, all we have to do is multiply those numbers together to know how many baseballs it would take to cover the entire surface of home plate.
About 34-36 baseballs are needed to cover all of home plate. While the width of home plate is 6 baseballs and the width is 6 baseballs, home plate is in the shape of a pentagon. 36 baseballs would be needed to cover a square, but a few baseballs can be removed to still cover the surface of the plate.
How Wide is Home Plate?
In baseball, home plate is exactly 17 inches wide and 17 inches in height. According to the MLB rules, home plate should be a 17-inch square with two corners removed.
When the dimensions of home plate are accurate, players should be able to fit six baseballs within the width of home plate and six baseballs within the length of home plate.
