Home Plate, Leaving and Returning

I recently purchased Baseball and Philosophy as part of the Pop Culture and Philosophy series. Other titles include, Seinfeld and Philosophy, The Simpsons and Philosophy, The Sopranos and Philosophy, etc.

Though I'm only a few pages in, one particular passage struck me about the concept of home plate.

This selection comes from, "There's No Place Like Home!" by Joe Kraus.

"The goal is to get 'home', and yet, every batter starts off at home. As soon as you walk up to face the pitcher, you're standing at the place you're eventually trying to reach. It's not hard to imagine Jerry Seinfeld asking the question, 'So, why leave? Why not just stay at home in the first place and forget about first, second, and third bases?' The answer, of course, is that 'home' in baseball doesn't count until you've left it...Put differently, home doesn't become meaningful until you have experienced the risk that lies in front of it. Homer told us, 'home is all the sweeter when you've braved adventures to get back to it.' (page 10)