Who is Mendoza?

Question

"The Mendoza Line" has long been used to describe hitting .200 in baseball. Who was the Mendoza that .200 refers to?

Answer 1

The term is supposedly named for former shortstop Mario Mendoza, who had a career batting average of .215 and actually hit .198 in the 1979 season. George Brett allegedly coined the phrase when asked about his batting average.[1] When shown his average in a newspaper, Brett was said to have 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." However, Brett was only behind Mario Mendoza in batting average for one day in the 1979 season, and Bruce Bochte and Tom Paciorek have also been credited as creators of the expression.

Answer 2

Mario Mendoza (born December 26, 1950 in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico) is a former Major League Baseball infielder who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1974-78), Seattle Mariners (1979-80) and Texas Rangers (1981-82).

Mendoza was primarily a shortstop, and the epitome of a "good field, no hit" player, compiling a lifetime .215 batting average and .262 slugging percentage. Mendoza also rarely stole a base or drew a walk, resulting in a well-rounded offensive ineptitude that caused him to be little more than a defensive substitute throughout most of his career. The one exception was 1979, when the Mariners, in the third year of their existence, gave Mendoza almost 400 at bats over 148 games. He responded with a .198 batting average.

Answer 3

Mario Mendoza (born December 26, 1950 in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico) is a former Major League Baseball infielder who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1974-78), Seattle Mariners (1979-80) and Texas Rangers (1981-82).

Mendoza was primarily a shortstop, and the epitome of a "good field, no hit" player, compiling a lifetime .215 batting average and .262 slugging percentage. Mendoza also rarely stole a base or drew a walk, resulting in a well-rounded offensive ineptitude that caused him to be little more than a defensive substitute throughout most of his career. The one exception was 1979, when the Mariners, in the third year of their existence, gave Mendoza almost 400 at bats over 148 games. He responded with a .198 batting average.

Mendoza's most lasting contribution to the game was having his name associated with the "Mendoza Line," meaning a batting average near .200 (although there is controversy over whether the term originated with him or with another man, Minnie Mendoza of the Minnesota Twins). The term was reportedly bestowed by George Brett, who came up with it when using Mendoza as an example of poor hitting during an interview. It should be noted that Brett also praised the defensive abilities of Mendoza during an interview during the 1980 season when Brett was pursuing .400. Brett opined that Mendoza robbed him of sure base hits on several occasions with exceptional defensive plays.

Answer 4

Mario Mendoza. He was a shortstop and played parts of 9 seasons for the Pirates, Mariner, and Rangers from 1974-1982.

Although he kinda gets a bad rap because he did in fact have a career .215 batting average, he got the most action for Seattle in 1979 when he had 373 at bats with a season batting average of .198. George Brett invented the phrase when he was in a slump and his was average was falling toward the "Mendoza Line".

Answer 5

Shortstop Mario Mendoza, who played for the Rangers, the Pirates, and the Mariners, had a lifetime avg. of .215. Although he wasn't exactly a good hitter, he was an extremely good fielder, which probably kept him in the big leagues from 1974-82.

Answer 6

It's named after Mario Mendoza, a shortstop from the late '70s and early '80s:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/m/mendoma01.shtml

It usually refers to a batting average of around .200, even though his career average was slightly higher.

Answer 7

According to his baseball card he was a shortstop for the pirates who hit .180 in his first season in 1975.

Answer 8

he is a fat dog




there used to be a cartoon called fat dog mendoza