Why is a .200 batting average called the Mendoza line?

Question

If you are batting .180, someone might say, "you are under the Mendoza line," where does that come from?

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendoza_Line

full explanatin right there.

Answer 2

Mendoza Line Baseball

Answer 3

The Mendoza Line is part of Mariners lore, no surprise given the anemic state of hitting in Seattle before the 1990s. (The Mets had the same problem in their early years.) I had not heard of Minnie Mendoza, but the George Brett story is well known, and of course Mario Mendoza of the Mariners was an active player in those days. It makes a great taunt against an opposing team's hitters. During the course of an interleague game I attended, the batting average of the NL team's DH dipped below .100 (the Mendoza Line is .200), and so I was able to greet his next appearance with, "You need a ladder just to reach the Mendoza Line!"

Answer 4

Mario Mendoza was a short stop who's career batting average hovered around .200. The story goes one of two ways, one of which being that when the newspaper printed batting averages, Mendoza's was the last one they printed, and all others with averages below his were under the Mendoza line. Another theory was that the term was started by George Brett's reference to Mendoza during an interview, when he pointed him out as an example of a poor hitter. Generally this line is the lowest average you can have to be considered even bad at baseball as a hitter, anything below is complete failure. Pitchers of course are excepted from this rule.

Answer 5

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Why is a .200 batting average called the Mendoza line?
If you are batting .180, someone might say, "you are under the Mendoza line," where does that come from?

Answer 6

There was a player in the 70's named Mario Mendoza who was below the .200 mark 5 of his 9 seasons in the majors.

Answer 7

cbass, The Mendoza line is supposedly named after former shortstop Mario Mendoza. George Brett coined the phrase in '79 after seeing his batting average he said, "I knew I was off to a bad start when I saw my average listed below the Mendoza line." I guess Brett followed him in the batting order for the '79 Royals. Hope this helps.

Answer 8

The "Mendoza Line" is named for Mario Mendoza, a former player who somehow played nine years in MLB despite a .215 lifetime average.

Answer 9

mario mendoza the former infielder who played from 74-82 with the pirates, mariners, and the rangers. He hit .215, mostly hitting under or around .200.

Answer 10

There was once a good-field, no-hit player named Mario Mendoza.

Answer 11

I worked for small company once. Since I was on a first name basis with the owner and he knew what my religious beliefs were, I was not offered a holiday bonus when everyone else in the office received one. Most of my co-workers (not me)protested that this was unfair since I worked as hard or even harder than anyone else. On January 2, of that year I received a substantial raise. My employer had decided that it was the only right thing to do since everyone else got bonuses that I did not. This taught me that the yearly bonuses, are really a part of your earnings, not a "gift". This was reinforced years later when I worked for a very large company that gave out yearly bonuses in March, not at the end of the year.