The story
In baseball, every batter waits a turn, then walks up to home plate to face the pitcher. Stepping up to the plate means it is your turn, with everyone watching.
Home plate earned its name honestly. Under baseball’s 1857 rules it was a circular iron plate, painted or enameled white. In 1868 it became a square, and the five-sided plate we know arrived in 1900, adopted by the National League.
The phrase was in the sports pages early. In May 1874, the Chicago Tribune said of a beaten Hartford team that “The visitors were put out as fast as they stepped up to the plate.”
Off the field, Americans borrowed it for anyone who answers when a job needs doing. No one has dated that first leap from the ballpark, but today it is far more often heard in offices and kitchens than in dugouts.
