By: Jerry Hart,
Rule 1.04 in OBR, LL and SL/BL rule books govern THE PLAYING FIELD. 2) Locate the line of sight from HP to the pitcher's plate and second base(2B) by bisecting the angle between the fences. Extend your tape measure(metal is recommended to prevent errors due to stretching but I let MLB worry about things like that) from one backstop fencepost as far you can and mark an arc on the ground. Do the same thing from the other backstop fencepost. I use a 10 inch steel nail driven into the ground to hold the end of the tape measure and a squeeze mustard or catsup bottle full of chalk for marking arcs. 3) Locate the center of 2B by extending your tape anchored at the tip of HP by the nail out over the mark where the two arcs intersect for the proper distance. As the wags have playfully alluded to in previous posts, the proper distance is found by applying the Pythagorean Theorem which states: In any right triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides expressed as c2 = a2 + b2 where c is the length of the hypotenuse and a and b are the lengths of the
other two sides. For example, with 60 foot basepaths: The distance from HP to 2B equals the square root of 602 + 602. The square root of 7200 is 84.85 feet or 84 feet, 10 inches. 4) Locate the front center of the pitcher's plate at the proper distance(46, 50, 54 or 60.5 feet depending on league) from the tip of HP. 5) Locate 1B by measuring arcs of the proper distance for basepaths in your league from the tip of HP and the center of 2B. Note that this marks the outside corner(furtherest from both HP and 2B) of 1B. In other words, the center of the basepath is a line tangent to the OUTFIELD SIDE of 1B or 3B bag to the CENTER of 2B. 6) Locate 3B in the same manner as for 1B. 7) Double check your layout by confirming that the diagonal distances from the tip of HP to the center of 2B are equal to the diagonal distance from the outside corner of 1B to the outside corner of 3B and the distance is the same as derived mathematically or from Rule 1.04 in your rule book. 8) The location of foul(actually fair) poles is most accurately done with a transit but can be easily done with carpenter's twine extended from the tip of HP over the 1B and 3B marks to the outfield fence. Recommended distances to the outfield fence along the foul lines and to CF can be found in Rule 1.04. OBTW. Homeplate is the same size for all levels of play. See Rule 1.05. Little League allows bases to be 14 or 15 inches square and no more than 2 1 / 4 inches thick at the edges for LL, SL and BL. OBR requires bases to be 15 inches square and between 3 and 5 inches thick. See Rule 1.06. The pitcher's rubber is 4 inches by 18 inches located 6 inches above the level of HP for LL. The pitcher's rubber is 6 inches by 24 inches located 10 inches above the level of HP for SL and OBR. See Rules 1.04 and 1.07. Note also that the size, shape and location of the catcher's box is different between LL and SL and OBR. LL stayed with the old-fashioned triangular-shaped catcher's box formed by extending the foul lines 9 feet behind the tip of HP with
a line connecting the ends of the two extended foul lines. Older players use the more modern rectangular catcher's box. If you do a lot of field layout work, I highly recommend you make yourself a layout chain twice the length of the basepath you use with a 1 inch ring in the middle, a marker of some kind at the pitcher's plate distance and diagonal distance and a ring on each end. To use it, you anchor it at HP and 2B and just flop it over to mark 1B and then 3B. It makes layout go very quickly and accurately. I really didn't mean to write a book but I hope this info. helps someone make baseball safer and more enjoyable for the kids.
Date: April 05, 1998 at 11:02
Assuming you have nothing more than a chainlink backstop:
1) Locate the tip of homeplate(HP) by measuring the recommended distance from the very center of the backstop and marking an arc on the ground. (The recommended distance from the tip of HP to the backstop is 25 feet for basepaths that are 60 feet or less; 45 feet for basepaths greater than 60 but less than 90 feet and 60 feet for a full-sized baseball diamond with 90 foot basepaths.) Then locate the two posts which marking the beginnings of the straight sections of fence down the foul lines. Mark an equal length arc from each backstop fencepost that intersect at the minimum distance arc previously marked. This will center the tip of HP equidistant from the two foul line fences at the proper distance from the backstop. If the fences are set 90º to each other you should have sufficient dead ball territory from HP to the outfield fence.