Where does the term "Mendoza Line" come from (when a batter hits under .200)?

Answer 1

It's named after Mario Mendoza, who was a superb fielder but a rather weak hitter.

Here's a wonderfully detailed etymology, history, and background of the term: http://members.tripod.com/~alpepper/mendozaline.html

I'd always heard the term attributed to George Brett, but apparently not so; to the best knowledge it was coined in 1979 by one or two of Mendoza's teammates on the Mariners. Brett, however, popularized it in a 1980 interview, and it took on a life of its own. Brett's statement: "The first thing I look for in the Sunday papers is who is below the Mendoza line". Sunday editions tend to list all the players currently qualified for the batting title, and Mendoza was usually dead last.

Mendoza was a lifetime .215 hitter, and the term properly refers to whomever is last among current qualified players, but for convenience and our general preference for base-ten numbers, the ML typically is considered as a .200 average.

Answer 2

There is actually 2 people for which the Mendoza line is said to have come from. First was Mario Mendoza who was a shortstop with several teams. There are some people who say it was named after Minnie Mendoza who played for the Twins. George Brett is said when questioned by a reporter about his poor hitting that he was finally above the Mendoza line(.200)

Answer 3

The Mendoza Line is an informal term used in baseball for when a player's batting average falls below .200, considered the boundary between extremely poor and merely below-average offensive players. It is the offensive threshold below which a player's presence in the Major Leagues is difficult to justify despite their defensive abilities, except in the case of a player with an extremely high home run total; baseball pitchers are not subject to this threshold because of the specialty of their skills.

The term was named for former shortstop Mario Mendoza, who had a career batting average of .215 and actually hit .198 in the 1979 season. According to this version, George Brett originated it when asked about his batting average. He was shown the average in a newspaper, and made a remark along of the lines of "I knew I was off to a bad start when I saw my average listed below the Mendoza line."

The term has recently entered more general use as any level of acceptable mediocrity. For example, in handicapping sports, the Mendoza line would be set at the 50% mark, or where random chance would produce the same results as a handicapper's selections.

There is also a band called The Mendoza Line.

Some NFL media outlets have begun to refer to an equivalent measure of productivity for quarterbacks, called the "Kordoza Line". This is named after former NFL quarterback Kordell Stewart, whose career passer rating of 70.7 is considered the lower bound of acceptable passing efficiency in the modern NFL

Answer 4

From Mario Mendoza, a light-hitting middle infield,er whose lifetime BA is.215. THe line is errouneously set at .200.

Answer 5

Becausee hitting a participant is an area of the interest, only as is the batter attempting to scouse borrow the interior area of domicile plate. The batter is asserting "i do no longer admire you the pitcher", so the pitcher brushes him back, at times hitting him, asserting in result "stay out of my territory." at times a glass loses administration and plunks a batter, yet batters know what's got here approximately and barely get upset in those circumstances. yet hitting batters back and forth on the two aspects gets tempers flaring and umpires mow have the potential to heave a glass, warn the two aspects approximately retaliation and heave managers and pitchers to get administration of concerns. What you not often see is the in the back of the scene apology via a glass for hitting somebody via accident and worse, hurting them. It happens yet gamers save those issues to themselves. The handshaking and stuff, generally interior the locker rooms, only how that's completed. additionally no longer those adult adult males save on working conversations with the different aspects gamers on the sphere. it relatively is a extraordinarily collegial game.... in contrast to hockey.